colloids

• Ways to reduce creaming of an emulsion or sedimentation of a given suspension

  • Forming smaller particles
  • Increasing the viscosity of the continuous phase
  • Decreasing the density difference between the two phases
• If collisions are allowed to continue unchecked, the colloidal system destroys itself through growth of the disperse phase and excessive creaming or sedimentation of the large particles
• Ostwald ripening


  The tendency for the growth of the larger droplets at the expense of smaller droplets, where molecules diffuse from the smaller droplets to the larger ones through the continuous phase, with a resultant increase of the mean droplet size, driven by the fact that large particles are energetically more favoured than smaller ones