Coagulation Kinetics and Structure Formation : Springer : 9781475706192 : 1475706197 : 08 Aug 2013 : Colloidal dispersions play a very important role in nature, industry, and daily life. Sometimes, long-term stability is observed or desired as in ferrotluids (composed of very small magnetic particles with radii of ~ 10 nm), which must be stable even in external fields. On the other hand, only short-term stable dispersions may be necessary during actual processing operations, for example, dispersions of magnetite particles during tape manufacture. The stability of dispersions and many of their physical properties are related to the interaction between the particles in the dispersion medium, which may contain surfactants or macromolecular species. If the net interparticle interaction forces are attractive, then aggregation may occur. Two general types of aggregation behavior may be distinguished: coagulation and flocculation. These two terms are frequently used synonymously but IUPAC has