T. Narayanan et al., REVERSIBLE FLOCCULATION OF SILICA COLLOIDS IN LIQUID-MIXTURES, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 48(3), 1993, pp. 1989-1994
We report some observations concerning the reversible flocculation of
silica colloids in reentrant liquid mixtures of 3-methylpyridine plus
water plus heavy water and 2,6-lutidine plus water. our research invol
ved a detailed determination of the line of flocculation temperatures
for phase-separating as well as non-phase-separating mixtures. We find
that the flocculation temperature is more influenced by the impuritie
s in the suspension rather than the concentration and size of the sphe
res. For a fixed volume fraction and diameter of the colloids, we noti
ce a close similarity between the dome of flocculation temperatures an
d the bulk-coexistence surface but with different amplitudes and expon
ents in each case.