Colloids

The experiments in this section include examples of emulsions, emulsifiers, gels, suspensions, and foams and build on knowledge and understanding of mixtures.

While we are still at an early stage with this website it's probably more useful to look at the page with our complete list of experiments in alphabetical order. See the list on About this website.

We are starting with GCSE-level experiments.

Experiments

• Detergents, soaps and surface tension

  Adding detergents and soaps to powders floating on water, or to a floating needle, illustrates their effect on surface tension.

• Making soaps and detergents

  The manufacture of soaps and detergents is illustrated by the saponification of castor oil to form a soap, and the sulfonation of castor oil to make a detergent.

• Formation of a sol

  In this demonstration a sol is formed from iron(III) hydroxide.

• Emulsifiers

  In this straightforward experiment students test a range of substances to see which act as emulsifiers.