Chem M5 Colloids
Chem M5 Colloids
Chem M5 Colloids
Colloids
What do milk, paints, cooked starch, ceramics, glue, ink, rubber, jelly, butter and
cheese have in common? All of them are basic examples of colloids. A colloid is another
type of mixture. It is distinguished from solutions and suspensions in that its particle size is
bigger than those of solutions but smaller than those of suspensions. Colloids may appear
homogenous to the naked eye but are actually heterogenous when carefully viewed in a
microscope. This means that more than one distinct phase can be distinguished.
This module is all about colloids, their properties and behavior. Knowledge of colloid
chemistry can help you answer questions like How are fogs formed? Why are the sky and
sea blue? What makes glue, adhesive, paint, and ink stick to surfaces? What is the
principle behind the preparation of your all-time favorite mayonnaise spread?
To make the discussion easy for you, the module is divided into four lessons:
1. classify colloids;
2. relate the properties of colloids to their behavior;
3. discuss the methods and principles applied in purifying colloids;
4. prepare colloids; and
5. explain how the properties of colloids are utilized in technology, human body and
environment
Take the pretest before proceeding in the lessons. Check your answers against the answer
key at the end of the module.
I. Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a
separate sheet of paper.
6. What phenomenon is observed when vapors are held on the surface of activated carbon
powder?
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a. adsorption c. Brownian motion
b. Tyndall effect d. electrical charge effect
7. Which is the process of separating ions and molecules from colloidal particles by
passing through a semi-permeable membrane?
a. dialysis c. activation
b. adsorption d. coagulation
II. Matching Type. Match the description in column A with the type of colloid in column B.
Column A Column B
_____ 1. solid dispersed in liquid a. gel
_____ 2. liquid dispersed in gas b. emulsion
_____ 3. liquid dispersed in liquid c. liquid sol
_____ 4. liquid dispersed in solid d. solid foam
_____ 5. gas dispersed in solid e. liquid foam
f. liquid aerosol
Mixtures are classified as suspensions, colloids and solutions. By now, you should
clearly distinguish between suspensions and solutions (Module 15). The only new term to
you is just colloid. Let us check how well you can differentiate these three types of mixtures
by doing Activity 1.1.
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What you will do
Activity 1.1 Types of mixtures
Procedure:
Analysis:
Sugar +
W Sand +
a Oil + W
Behavior of Particles
t Water at
e er
r
Settle at the bottom
Scatter light
Can be filtered
Homogeneity/ Heterogeneity
2. Based from the behavior of the particles, identify the type of mixture in each set-up.
State whether the mixture is a solution, colloid or suspension.
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example, when you beat an egg, you introduce air into the egg. Here, the egg is the
dispersing medium and the air is the dispersed material. In Activity 1.1, which mixture is a
colloid?
Table 1.1 below shows the different types of colloid and examples of each type:
Let us test how well you understand classifying colloids. Can you classify what type
of colloid each of these substances are?
1. cheese
2. marshmallow
3. ink
4. whipped cream
5. cork
6. mist
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What you will do
Self-Test 1.1
Now that you are through with the first lesson, try to answer the following and see for
yourself how much you learned.
Matching Type. Match the items in column A with the type of colloid in column B. Note:
Items in Column B may be used twice.
Column A Column B
_____ 1. clouds a. liquid emulsion
_____ 2. soap in water b. gel
_____ 3. jellies c. liquid sol
_____ 4. soap suds d. solid sol
_____ 5. plastics e. solid foam
_____ 6. milk f. liquid foam
_____ 7. salad dressing g. liquid aerosol
_____ 8. butter h. solid aerosol
_____ 9. gemstones i. solid emulsion
_____ 10. dust in air
Did you encounter any problem? Well, compare your answers with the answer key
and see for yourself the items you missed. Good luck!
Key to answers on page 17.
Colloids are a special type of mixture because they exhibit unique properties. That is
why many kinds of food products and raw materials are in the form of colloids. These
unique properties of colloids include the Tyndall effect, Brownian motion, adsorption and
electrical charge effect.
Tyndall Effect
When a beam of light is made to pass through a colloid, it is scattered by the colloidal
particles which appear as tiny specks of light. This light scattering is called the Tyndall
effect. No such scattering is observed with ordinary solutions because the solute molecules
are too small to interact with visible light. Colloidal particles can scatter light because they
are large enough to catch light and reflect it back. This is the reason why oil and water
mixture in Activity 1.1 has the ability to scatter light because it is a colloid. The ability of a
mixture to scatter light is one way of distinguishing colloids from solutions. Manifestations of
Tyndall effect are observed everyday in nature. For instance, when we wake up on a sunny
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morning, our senses are awakened by sunlight scattered by dust or smoke in the air.
Have you ever wondered why the sea and sky are blue?
It is because of the scattering of the blue or shorter wavelength
of light by the thick layer of small particles in the atmosphere
and in the deep waters. The brilliant colors of sunset are also
due to light scattering by colloidal water droplets in the
atmosphere.
Light scattering is often used in determining particle size. The different colors that we
see are not due to pigments but rather to the scattering of light by colloidal substances in
the iris. Green, brown, and black are due to a combination of light scattering and the
presence of yellowish-brown pigment in front of the iris, causing selective absorption of light.
Brownian Movement
Observe the movement of dust particles floating in air one sunny day. Could you
describe their movement? Do they settle on standing?
The motion of particles floating in air is random and almost in a zigzag fashion. This
interesting property of colloids, called Brownian motion, is due to the constant and
continuous collision of colloidal particles against each other. This is also the reason why
colloidal particles do not settle on standing. The rate of settling of particles is dependent on
the following:
The above factors are also useful in identifying viruses, proteins, plastics and other
macromolecules.
Adsorption
How is adsorption different from absorption? If you place a few drops of water onto a
cotton ball, the water droplets are immediately soaked up by the cotton. This is absorption.
On the other hand, adsorption is when you use the cotton ball against the
chalkboard. Observe closely what happens to the cotton. Chalk particles and dust adhered
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to the surface. This phenomenon is called adsorption. Physical and/or chemical forces
may be involved in adsorption. One property of colloidal particles is that they exhibit
adsorption. This is due to the large surface areas of colloidal particles. This interesting
property makes colloids very useful in everyday life. For example, charcoal is used to
remove the bad odor produced by vapors of food in the refrigerator. The network of pores in
the charcoal provides extensive surface area that adsorbs the vapors.
The adsorptive ability of colloids is used in dyeing fabrics, in the use of aluminum
hydroxide in purifying water, in the use of activated carbon in refining sugar and
electroplating solutions, and in the use of bone black in gas masks to remove toxic gases in
the air.
A colloid may allow ions to be adsorbed on its surface, thereby acquiring an electrical
charge. The electrical charge may either be positive or negative. This electrical charge will
prevent the particles from clumping together or coagulating.
To understand more about the electrical charge effect of colloids, it will be interesting
to do Activity 2.1 which is similar to the Joy Dishwashing Challenge you have seen in TV
commercials.
Procedure:
Analysis:
1. What happens when the detergent comes in contact with the grease?
2. Why is the grease removed when it comes in contact with the detergent?
3. How is the electric nature of colloids exemplified in this activity?
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What causes the colloidal particles to carry a charge?
Colloidal particles have high adsorptive capacity. Thus, particles
are adsorbed on their surface ions from water or from solutions of
electrolytes. Such molecules are called surfactants, because
they tend to adsorb at the surface of a substance that is in contact
with the solution that contains them. Classic examples of
surfactants are soap and detergents. They have both
hydrophobic (water fearing which refers to nonpolar part of
molecule not attracted to water) and hydrophilic (water loving
which refers to polar part of molecule attracted to water) groups in
their molecular structure.
Again, try to check how much you have learned from the lesson by answering the following
questions.
Did you encounter any problem? Well, compare your answers with the answer key
and see for yourself the items you missed. Good luck!
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Lesson 3. How are Colloids Prepared?
There are actually two ways of making a given substance disperse to colloidal size
by means of dispersion or condensation. Dispersion is the breaking of large pieces into
colloidal particle size. On the other hand, condensation involves tiny particles (molecules,
ions, or atoms) clumping together to form clusters.
Several processes make use of the principle of dispersion in making colloids. For
example, grinding using a colloid mill is used in the preparation of paint pigments or face
powder. Also, the process of beating, stirring and whipping in preparing mayonnaise or
creams is a form of dispersion. You may also use chemicals to break down big particles.
For example, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is used to break up clay, glue, starch and gelatin
peptized in water. The process is known as peptization.
1. Measure out 2-3 cups of water and pour into the jar. Add about 4-6 drops of food
coloring to the water and mix (optional). Next, measure out 2-3 cups of salad oil.
Pour into the jar and mix again. Observe what happens. Let the contents of the
jar sit for 3 - 5 minutes.
2. Get some oil and water to mix. What should we add to mix oil and water
together?
3. Pour the vinegar into your jar.
4. Pour the salad oil into the jar and put on the lid. Shake the contents very hard for
3 - 4 minutes, then let the mixture sit for three to four minutes. Compare the
vinegar and oil mixture with the oil and water mixture previously done. What do
you observe?
5. Put the egg yolks into the small cup or bowl. Beat the yolks until they are liquid.
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6. Pour the beaten yolks into the jar with the oil
and vinegar and close the lid. Shake the
contents very hard for 3 - 4 minutes. Observe
what happens.
7. Add the mustard and the salt to the mixture.
Again, shake very hard for three to four
minutes. Taste it. You now have your home-
made mayonnaise.
Analysis:
The oil and the vinegar (water) mixed much better when the egg yolk was added.
The lecithin, which is a protein in the egg yolk, acts as an emulsifying agent. Emulsifying
agents have regions that associate with the oil and regions that associate with the vinegar
(water). Thus the emulsifier (the egg yolk) acts as a bridge between the oil and water. The
mayonnaise created is an emulsion of oil droplets in water.
If colloids are made, they can also be broken for certain purposes. There are several
ways of breaking colloids. These include applying heat, adding a reactant or chemical, or
passing an electric current through it.
1. Applying heat
Have you tried cooking egg for breakfast? An egg white is a colloidal protein. The
particles of an egg clump together because of the heat applied while the egg is being
cooked. This is one way of breaking colloids. Another application of heat in breaking
colloids is by digestion. This involves slow application of heat causing the colloidal
particles to get bigger which is used to prepare precipitates for filtration in the laboratory.
Have you heard of cloud seeding? Rain is made by seeding the clouds with solid
carbon dioxide (dry ice) or with silver iodide crystals. These seeds provide nuclei on which
water vapor condenses.
For a clearer visibility of the runways during rainy season, airport fog is removed by
using salt or dry ice.
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3. Passing through an electric current
Figure 3.1
Cottrell electric precipitator
Let us try to check how much you have learned from this lesson by answering the following
questions.
_______________1. It is the method that involves the breaking down of big particles to
smaller ones.
_______________2. It is the agent which brings about the formation of an emulsion.
_______________3. It is a method of allowing electric current to pass through the particle
so that it will be attracted to the plates and be neutralized causing the
particles to coagulate and settle down.
_______________4. It is the method where colloidal particles are built from the
accumulation of smaller particles.
_______________5. It is the method utilized in rain making.
Did you encounter any problem? Well, compare your answers with the answer key
and see for yourself the items you missed. Good luck!
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Lesson 4. How are Colloids Utilized in Technology, Human Body and
Environment?
Colloid substances are involved in many biological processes. For example, the
human blood is a colloid. Protein molecules in the blood can be very long and their size
falls within colloidal size range. Soluble waste products of metabolic processes will be
carried by the blood to the kidneys for elimination.
Sometimes, toxic substances build up in the blood because the kidneys are not
working efficiently specially in the case of patients suffering from Uremia. In order to clean
the blood, it is made to flow across a large cellophane in an artificial kidney or dialyzing
machine. This process is known as dialysis. Dialysis is the process of separating the
contaminated ions and other smaller molecules from the colloidal particles of the blood by
letting the true solutes to pass through a semi-permeable membrane. Dialysis of the blood
is known as hemodialysis.
Figure 4.1
In the process of hemodialysis, contaminated ions in the blood is allowed to pass in the
dialyzing tube, letting the true solutes to pass through a semi-permeable membrane
In hemodialysis, the bloodstream is diverted from its normal course in the body and
pumped through a dialyzing tube with the semi-permeable membrane. An aqueous solution
containing ions, such as Na+, K+, and Cl- are of the same concentration as that of the blood
on the other side of the dialyzing membrane (isotonic). To prevent blood clotting, an anti-
clotting agent is added to the dialyzing solution. It is however important that the dialyzing
solution is isotonic because that ensures that the solute particles pass in and out of the
blood at equal rates, resulting in no net removal of essential components of the blood. In
this regard, only the contaminated ions are removed faster than they are returned to the
blood. Within a certain time, the procedure reduces the level of toxic substances in the
blood.
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Colloids in Environment
The use of colloids in the environment can be both harmful and beneficial. Some
may be natural while others are caused by human activities. Harmful ones can be made
beneficial if we just learn how to manipulate colloids.
Aerosols are one of the unwanted colloids in the environment. These consist of solid
or liquid particles that are dispersed in air smaller than 100m in diameter. These very
small particles include carbon black, silver iodide, and sea salt. These suspended particles
in air are commonly called particulates or simply particulate matter (PM). Larger
particulates include cement dusts and soil dust. Even larger particulates are raindrops, fog
and sulfuric acid mist. In some of these particulates, viruses, bacteria and fungal spores
may also be present. The presence of these bacteria causing diseases can be a threat to
health in the community as what happened in the meningococcemia epidemic in Baguio City
on December 2004. Some toxic air pollutants such as unburned hydrocarbons from motor
vehicles can cause respiratory irritations when inhaled.
Figure 4.2
Foams collected on surface of bodies of water
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What you will do
Self-Test 4.1
Let us check how much you have learned from the lesson by answering the following
questions.
1. In our waterways, the disposal of detergents and other pollutants can act as
protective colloids that stabilize _______________ formation.
2. _______________ is the process of separating the contaminated ions and other
smaller molecules from the colloidal particles of the blood by letting the true
solutes to pass through a semi-permeable membrane.
3. _______________ is a condition where toxic substances build up in the blood
because the kidneys are not working efficiently.
4. Suspended particles in air are commonly called _______________.
5. It is important that the dialyzing solution is _______________ to ensure that
solute particles pass in and out of the blood at equal rates, resulting in no net
removal of essential components of the blood.
Did you encounter any problem? Well, compare your answers with the answer key
and see for yourself the items you missed. Good luck!
Key to answers on page 18.
Lets Summarize
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8. Dispersion and condensation are two ways of making a given substance disperse
to colloidal size. When larger pieces are broken into colloidal size, the process is
dispersion. But when tiny particles clump together to form clusters the process is
condensation.
Posttest
I. Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the chosen letter on a
separate sheet of paper.
4. As you enter the building, you observe a beautiful beam of light from the glass roof.
What best explains this phenomenon?
a. adsorption c. Brownian motion
b. Tyndall effect d. electrical charge effect
5. Merengue is prepared by beating the egg white vigorously. What method is used in
making this colloid?
a. deposition c. adsorption
b. dispersion d. condensation
7. When egg yolk is added to oil and water with vinegar to make mayonnaise, the egg yolk
serves as:
a. solvent c. surfactant
b. coagulant d. emulsifiying agent
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8. What is the phase of a dispersed material in emulsion?
a. gas c. liquid
b. solid d. cannot be determined
II. Analogy. Fill in the blanks with the correct answer based on the relationship provided.
Key to Answers
Pretest
Lesson 1
Self-Test 1.1
1. g 6. a
2. d 7. a
3. d 8. i
4. f 9. d
5. e 10. h
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Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4
Posttest
References
Araneta, F.L., Catris, L.V. & Deauna, M.C. (2002). The world of chemistry: Exploring the
natural world series. Philippines: SIBS Publishing Inc.
Green, J. & Damji, S. (2001). Chemistry. (2nd ed.) Australia: IBID Press, Victoria
Magno, M.C., Tan, M.C. & Punzalan A.E. (2000). Chemistry. (3rd ed.) Manila: DIWA
Scholastic Press Inc.
Moore, J.W., Stanitski, C.L. & Wood J.L. (1998). The chemical world: Concepts and
applications. (2nd ed.) USA: Harcourt Brace & Company
Petrucci, R.H. & Harwood, W.S. (1998). General chemistry: Principles and modern
applications. (7th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall International
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