Freeze-fracturing of dispersions

Abstract

In the last few years freeze-fracturing has proved to be a useful method for the investigation of dispersions. The freeze-fracture technique provides, above all, information on the arrangement of the colloidal particles in the liquid medium (e.g. on the state of agglomeration). Furthermore, it leads to conclusions about the structure, shape and size of the colloidal particles. The principles and applications particularly of the so-called drop-freeze-fracture technique are briefly described.