ABSTRACT

The chapter considers the results of research of geometrical and electrical characteristics of several water polydisperse colloids that can demonstrate the peculiarities and possibilities of electro-optics of polydisperse colloids. The object of electro-optics of colloids is the study of the characteristics of colloid particles, the properties of their surfaces, and those of the adjoint double electric layer. The main problem of electro-optics of colloids is the establishment of the relation of geometrical, electrical, and optical properties of colloid particles and the properties of optical anisotropy of a colloid system. The influence of external electric fields in molecular liquids on orientation and motion of a molecule is considerably less than that of Brownian motion. The fact that the magnitude of anisotropy in a colloid solution can, for a given field strength, be many orders of magnitude greater than the anisotropy of a molecular liquid, explains the smaller disorienting role of Brownian motion in systems with large particles.