Chapter One: Explanation Of What A Colloid Is
Free Online Ebook: Colloidal Silver An Analytical Investigative Report and Theoretical Overview
Colloids and colloidal systems, whether you know it or not, are already an integral part of, and profoundly affect and effect virtually every aspect of your everyday life. All living organisms contain colloidal matter including us.
Many industries employ colloidal technologies, such as paper mills, electronic component manufacturing, geology, pharmacology, dietary product manufacturers, the nutraceutical industry, food & beverage industries, oil and gas refining, Polymer manufacturing, textiles, water purification, ceramics manufacturing, aerospace, etc.
Many things involve the colloidal state. For example, blood is literally a colloidal system. The colloidal state is also present in; human cells, animal cells, plant cells and pathogens all contain colloidal matter. Many products contain colloidal particles or are in a colloidal state, clay used as casting slip in ceramics, polymer latex, photographic materials, nanoparticles, emulsions, microemulsions, liposomes, paints, inks, cosmetics and toiletries, self leveling concrete, beverages, food preservatives, food additives, personal care products, agrochemicals, colloidal minerals, food macromolecules, pharmaceutical preparations just to name a few generalizations.
Colloids are a prominent component of many of the everyday items you already use. Colloidal particles derived from food, supplements, water and beverages become the cells that collectively comprise your whole physical body.
Colloidal technology is a multidisciplinary science that involves aspects of physics, chemistry & mathematics. Depending on the industry and application, other sciences such as biology as well as geology may be involved. Colloidal science as it is practically applied is interdisciplinary and usually requires a working knowledge of the “colloidal system” and sciences involved as a whole.
The term colloidal is used interchangeably to mean many things to many different specialists who apply this term rather selectively to describe the colloidal state of matter within different industries. Different substances have different physical attributes in different dispersion mediums, and different size particle clusters of the same element or substance often have completely different attributes to clusters of different sizes, even in the same dispersion medium.
Physics and chemistry as colloids are concerned, always involves three states of matter – gas, liquid and solid. The colloidal state is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, and rightly so, in some cases, in our opinion.
A colloidal system can be defined as a gas, liquid or solid that is finely dispersed into a separate substance, or in common jargon, a separate medium. The medium will also be a gas, liquid or solid.
Normally it is presumed that particles are only considered to be in a colloidal state when they are dispersed into a liquid (dispersion medium). The dispersion medium that the particles are in can be anything from water, oils to organic solvents.
Jerome Alexander (1876-1959) was the pre-eminent American scientist in the field of colloidal chemistry, the study of substances neither in suspension nor solution which was pertinent to many other areas of chemistry.
Colloidal systems are comprised of a (disperse phase) i.e., uniformly distributed finely-divided-particles in a dispersion medium (the continuous phase).
COLLOID — { coined by Thomas Graham ( 1805-69 ) Scot. chemist }
A solid, liquid, or gaseous substance made up of very small, insoluble, nondiffusible particles (as single large molecules or masses of smaller molecules) that remain in suspension in a surrounding solid, liquid, or gaseous medium of different matter. A state of matter consisting of such a substance dispersed in a surrounding medium. All living matter contains colloidal material, and a colloid has only a negligible effect on the freezing point, boiling point, or vapor tension of the surrounding medium.
-Webster’s New World Dictionary — 1980
Generally, colloidal particle sizes range from less than one nanometer, to particles as large as one Micron, which is the general criteria of the dispersed phase, i.e. between 10 angstroms – (1 nanometer) and 10 000 Å – (1 micron).
What is a particle?
Particles, particularly when we are describing colloidal silver particles, are not single atoms of silver, the term particle, instead, is used to describe a group of atoms. A cluster-of-atoms is what a particle actually is. The particle size is established by how many atoms make up the single particle-cluster. A single atom is 0.288 nanometers in diameter.
Colloidal silver particle size normally ranges from 1 – 1000 nanometers.
Colloidal particles, when they are in a liquid (dispersion medium), produce an interaction between the particle surface charge and ions within the liquid in the immediate area around the particle, described as an electrical double layer, comprised of strongly bound ions closest to the particle (Stern) layer and the outer less strongly bound (diffuse) area. The diffuse area is also called the slipping plane, within which counter-ion charge accumulates as an ion cloud that moves with the particle within the dispersion medium. The electrical potential in the (slipping plane) notional boundary area is measured as an electrical value in volts (millivolts) and is known as zeta potential. It is within this area that a particle exists as a discrete sovereign entity.
The double layer may be divided into the Stern Layer (Stern Model) and the Gouy – Chapman layer (Gouy – Chapman Model) which extends into the dispersion medium. The electrical double layer model was first introduced by Stern (1924) by combining the Helmholtz and the Gouy-Chapman models, used to describe and calculate SURFACE CHARGE AND SURFACE POTENTIAL.
The charge at the surface of the particle may be an inherent attribute of the particle (s), or may result from an interaction between the particle (s) and the dispersion medium.
Since like charge repels like charge, and opposite charge attracts, it is the very slight net electronegative surface charge that draws a net positively charged counter-ion band around the particles, that then causes the particles to repulse each other. Like a microcosmic game of pool, once set in motion, that then keeps the similarly charged balls bouncing around within the medium which also has a fluctuating charge.
As long as the particles retain the particle size needed to maintain the colloidal state, and the dispersion medium maintains its attributes that allow the dynamic balance of the colloidal state – then the particles remain stable.
According to the electrostatic principles zeta potential (electrified solid/aqueous interface) is calculated by the equation,
x = 4 p s d / D
d : thickness of the electrical double layer
s : the electrical charge in the Stern layer
D : dielectrically constant.
Colloidal Stability
The random repulsion of like-charged ions at the surface of the double layer of a particle cluster must be predominant in order to overcome the van der Waals force of attraction, but the two forces must maintain a certain equilibrium, in order for a stable colloidal system to exist.
Random fluctuations in the density of the liquid (Brownian Motion), causes the particles to continue to interact-as-repulsion, observed as particles evenly dispersed by being in constant, random motion. Thus, a colloidal system is stable when the particles remain evenly dispersed over time, and do not aggregate-floc and undergo coagulation, sedimentation or phase separation and continue spinning around within the dispersion medium in a lively state known as Brownian Motion.
Named after the discoverer of the phenomena, originally observed in 1827 by British Botanist, Robert Brown (1773 – 1858) who first observed and described the random erratic oscillation of pollen grains in a liquid. The term Brownian motion as it is used today describes the behavior of particles that are magnitudes of orders smaller than the pollen grains originally observed by Robert Brown.
A colloidal system becomes, in a manner of speaking, saturated, when it can no longer carry colloidal material into the medium. The amount of material that can remain in the colloidal state within the medium is established as a function of zeta potential. When the Electro-negative charge increases, more material can be dispersed into the medium. As the electro-negative charge decreases, the particles move closer to each other and breach their electronic barriers. If the attractive force causes particles to make contact with sufficient force they aggregate and adhere strongly and potentially irreversibly together. The joining of colloidal particles is known as Flocculation or coagulation. The topic of colloidal stability is given more attention within the theory of colloidal stability (PDF), which involves such concepts as the electrical double layer, van der Waals dispersion forces and dipole-dipole attractions collectively addressed as DVLO theory.
DLVO theory (Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey and Overbeek theory), describes the dynamic balance of a colloidal system in more elaborate – intricate terms. However, simply put, regarding colloidal systems, stability is determined by the ability of the particles to remain in “dynamic balance”, meaning the particles are discrete from each other and from the medium they reside in, exerting the forces of attraction as well as (predominantly) repulsion in such a way that neither attraction nor repulsion overpowers the other while sustaining this state of dynamically balanced interplay over time.
Ultimately, stability is the projected amount of time that the colloidal state is expected to last, usually determined in simple terms as a measurement of zeta potential. Zeta potential measurement is usually accomplished with specialized equipment such as a Malvern Instruments Zetasizer Nano ZS90.
If the dynamic balance is lost, a colloidal system in essence – disintegrates. The disintegration of a colloidal system can manifest in a number of ways. When particles in a colloidal dispersion adhere to one another they form aggregates. The first stage of aggregate formation is called a floc. A floc may or may not settle out or separate. If flocs aggregate into successively increasing density they are described as having undergone coagulation. Flocculation-aggregation & coagulation are often used to describe similar phenomena, however, there are distinctions, for instance, flocculation is often reversible via a process called deflocculation, whereas coagulation usually indicates an irreversible phase separation.
For those of you who want to gain a deeper understanding of the subject of the COLLOIDAL STATE of MATTER, Zeta Potential and the Double Layer with a proper emphasis on “osmosis”, then you will enjoy the following link here.
Surface area
Colloidal particles have a high surface area to volume ratio. For example, if you have a one-ounce silver coin and you drop it on the kitchen floor it will cover a few square inches. However, if you would grind the silver into a fine powder and spread it out it could then cover the entire surface area of a floor. The same idea is applied to finely dispersed particles of silver in water, however, rather than a single plane the silver particles surface is spread out in a sense within the medium, in a manner that manifests omni-directionally.
A silver ion is slightly smaller than a silver atom because it has one less electron and is therefore 0.230 nm in diameter. A nanometer (nm) equals one billionth of a meter.
Silver ions are positively charged and silver particles in colloidal suspension are negatively charged. Reducing ionic silver content causes the zeta potential to become more negative increasing the stability of the colloid.
How significant are colloids with regard to life as we know it?
Here are some clues:
CU chemist Brian Crane is exploring “the controlled movement of charge, which he describes as “ultimately, the essence of life.” Nature’s ability to tune the reactivity of metal centers in proteins and to direct electron flow within and between proteins is controlled by the vast number of states available to the polypeptide chain. (A variety of proteins contain metal centers, generally performing functions ranging from the maintenance of structural integrity to catalysis.) The goal of Crane’s research is to develop and apply new photochemical methods for studying the structural basis of oxidation-reduction chemistry and long-range electron transfer in biology.”
Reference as of May 2006 has since been moved or removed: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/4.11.02/Crane.html
Colloidal Palladium
“PolyMVA Model for Cancer Destruction & Protective Ischemic in Stroke Palladium Lipoic Acid (PLA) acts by transferring electron charge from membrane fatty acids to DNA and mitochondria. Approximately a quarter volt of energy is utilized by the mitochondria, of normal cells, to combine with oxygen to form water in coupled reactions to produce energy (ATP) for normal growth and healing.
In anaerobic or severely hypoxic cell systems, however, such as in certain malignant tumors and protozoa, the electron energy can not transfer to mitochondrial oxygen. Instead, a sequence of ionization begins in the cell membrane and in the mitochondrial membrane. These ionization reactions begin with membrane blebbing and matures into a cascade of reactions, known collectively as apoptosis, in which mitochondrial proteins are released, facilitating the activation of cell destructive enzymes. These reactions lead to the eventual death of the anaerobic or hypoxic (cancer) cell and provide a theoretical model for treatment studies. Over 800 physicians who use Poly-MVA cannot be wrong. Dr. James Forsythe, Board Certified Oncologist has recently presented his 125 case study of stage 4 cancer patients with a 77 percent response rate using Poly-MVA. Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Ovarian, Brain, Pancreatic, Breast, Multiple Myeloma, Leukemia and Lung cancers, many with wide metastasis responded. A 23 percent FULL REVERSAL statistic is unheard of in these type of cancers, add to that 54 percent who had partial remissions and improving and you have a MIRACLE in the making. All this with an average of 6 months of treatment. Yes, that is what Dr. Forsythe reported – 77 percent response rate in terminal patients! Bonus. Best protective ischemia product when a stroke has occurred. Studies available. “
– Dr. AlbertSanchez
Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal, along with having the lowest contact resistance.
“We used to think, and some still do, that life came from a chemical soup. Now we know that unless there is an electrical charge there is no life. Life, then, is electrical. And when electrical systems go, although the chemistry is still there, the life does not exist.”
–Dr. Valerie Hunt, Prof. Emeritus, Dept. of Physiological Sciences, UCLA.