ABSTRACT
One of the most important aspects in colloid chemistry in general and in soil science in particular is that of colloid stability. That refers to the processes schematically depicted in Figure 6.1. Colloid stability is the ability of a colloidal suspension to remain as such, even when the spontaneous tendency should be (as we shall discuss in this chapter) to aggregate; that is, the kinetics of the forward process of Figure 6.1 is slow enough. On the contrary, dispersion, which is the reverse process affecting aggregate stability, can be caused by a change in medium conditions, mainly ionic strength, leading to mechanical instability, which can be the root cause for some landslides (Rankka et al. 2004; Eilertsen et al. 2008). In the following sections, we develop the basis of particle-particle interactions and colloid stability.
