Hydration and the Stability of Foams and Emulsions

Abstract

Our present understanding of the role of hydration and interfacial water structure in determining the properties of foams and emulsions is outlined in this chapter. A chapter on colloidal systems, if there is one at all, is usually the last in physical chemistry texts because the authors cannot think of much to say. Fortunately, today this difficulty does not apply to colloid science as a whole because since 1940 a quantitative theory to describe the van der Waals forces of attraction and electrical forces of repulsion between colloidal particles has been available (see Chapter 1) and it is still being refined. However, as far as the role of solvation and hydration in particular is concerned, there is justification for having this review near the end of a treatise on water. This aspect is poorly understood and it is only recently that research has been concentrated on improving the situation.