Freezing Colloids: Natural and Technological Occurrences

Abstract

The solidification or freezing of colloidal suspensions or colloids is commonly encountered in a variety of natural processes such as the freezing of soils in northern regions and the growth of sea ice, or everyday life and engineering situations such as food engineering (fabrication of ice cream), materials science, cryobiology, filtration or water purification, and the removal of pollutants from waste. It is therefore an amazingly common phenomenon, of stupendous impact in natural, physical, social, and technological environments. The associated costs (degradation of roads) or benefits (climate control, cryopreservation protocols, and tissue engineering scaffolds) are of tremendous importance. This chapter rapidly presents the various occurrences of freezing colloids, their conditions, specificities, and the way the phenomena has been considered and investigated. It will thus provide a good overview of the topics discussed in this book. For the reader specialised in one of these domains, the variety of occurrences presented here should convince him of the benefits of a more generic, interdisciplinary approach.