Abstract:

We show that density measurements can provide an alternative method for determining the number and species of ions adsorbed onto colloidal particles. We cause charge-stabilized colloidal dispersions of polystyrene spheres to aggregate by adding various salts. The solvents are mixtures of H2O and D2O in which the colloids are neutrally buoyant after aggregation, which we verify by centrifugation of the samples, By this method we are able to determine the density of the aggregated colloids. We find that the density depends on the species of salt added to initiate the aggregation and can be calculated on the assumption that a cation of the added salt binds with each ionizable group on the surface of the colloidal particles. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.

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