Colloids BT - A History of Chemistry: Volume Four

Abstract

The development of colloid chemistry was divided by Wolfgang Ostwald1 into three main periods: (i) Graham (1851–64), (2) Barus and Schneider (1981) and Picton and Linder (1892), who recognised that many colloids contain finely-divided particles of substances in their ordinary state, (3) the invention of the ultramicroscope (Siedentopf and Zsigmondy, 1902) to the present day. Ostwald emphasised the importance of surface energy which results from the fine state of division of one phase in a colloidal system.