ABSTRACT
The surface chemistry of solid particles in a liquid medium is known to be of
major importance for several distinct industrial processes, including food proces-
sing, soil conditioning, ore processing, formulation of paints and inks, pharma-
ceutical and cosmetic production, paper manufacturing, and ceramic fabrication
(1-4). An understanding of some basic concepts of surface chemistry is therefore
essential to improve the reliability and reproducibility of such processes and to
enable the development of novel processing technologies (5-9). The common
feature that makes surface chemistry principles so important for all these appar-
ently diverse processes is the fact that they all involve the handling of suspensions
(solid-liquid mixtures) containing colloidal particles (,1 mm) of relatively high specific surface area (.1 m2/g), which are more susceptible to the surface forces that take place at the solid-liquid interface. The magnitude of these surface forces
controls the dispersion state of particles and the rheological behavior of colloidal
suspensions.
