ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a variety of industrial applications of colloid chemistry. The surface forces involved in colloidal particles as found in wastewater are known to be of great significance. Wastewater treatment is an important technology in many everyday phenomena. Ionic strength and pH are particularly found to exhibit very specific effects. The different forces of interest are van der waals, electrostatic, steric, hydration and polymer–polymer interactions. Colloidal particles remain suspended in solution through Brownian motion, only if gravity forces do not drag the particles to the bottom. The stability of such colloidal systems is a phenomenon that may be roughly compared to a bucket that is stable when standing up but, if tilted beyond a certain angle, topples and comes to rest on its side. Wastewater treatment technology is one of the most important areas where colloidal surface chemistry is applied. The techniques applied follow a variety of principles, which are strongly related to surface chemistry.
