RES³T - Rossendorf Expert System for Surface and Sorption Thermodynamics

In the past decade, there have been some considerable advances in the study of the colloid chemical properties of hydrosols. These advances resulted in part from the increased attention paid to (a) characterisation of the type and site density of reactive functional groups on the colloid, (b) the tendency of the functional groups to react with ionic species from the solution phase and (c) the use of electrical double layer (e.d.l.) models to estimate the effect of the development of surface charge and potential in the e.d.l. on the tendency of the functional groups to react. This type of approach has now been used for description of the potentiometric and conductometric titrations, the surface charge density and electrokinetic potential of polymer latices, oxides and clays dispersed in aqueous electrolytes. Such descriptions can also be extended to the adsorption of dilute solutes, e.g. hydrolysable metal ions such as cadmium onto hydrosols.