COLLOID
In colloidal solutions particles are uniformly spread throughout. Due to small size of particles, colloids appears to be a homogeneous mixture but it is a heterogeneous mixture.
A colloid contains a dispersion phase and a dispersion medium. Dispersed particles in colloid is known as dispersion phase and component in which dispersion phase is suspended is known as dispersion medium. Colloids are classified based on difference in state of dispersion medium and dispersion phase. Type of colloids with examples is provided in the below table,
Examples of colloids
Milk, jelly, shavings cream, smoke, foam, mud etc
Properties of a colloid
- Colloid is a heterogeneous mixture
- Particles of colloid is small, cannot be seen with naked eyes
- Particle size of colloids are big enough compared to pure solution to scatter a beam of light, so that we can observe Tyndall effect. ( The phenomenon in which path of a light is visible when a beam of light passed through some colloids is known as Tyndall effect)
- Colloid is quite stable, because they don’t settle down when left undisturbed
- Colloid particles cannot be separated by filtration. But some other specific techniques of separations like centrifugation can be used to separate colloidal particles.