Answer to Question #166672 in General Chemistry for Wena

Question

What kind of colloidal system is the calcium acetate gel? How is it formed? What are the expected characteristic of calcium acetate gel?

Answer 1

Calcium acetate is a chemical compound which is a calcium salt of acetic acid. It has the formula Ca(C₂H₃O₂)₂. Its standard name is calcium acetate, while calcium ethanoate is the systematic name. An older name is acetate of lime. The anhydrous form is very hygroscopic; therefore the monohydrate (Ca(CH₃COO)₂•H₂O) is the common form.

3.It is a heterogeneous system consisting of two phases (i) Dispersed phase and (ii) Dispersion medium. If the dispersion medium is water, the colloidal solutions are called hydrosols or simply sols. If alcohol or benzene is the dispersion medium, it is called alcosol or benzosol etc.

Emulsion can be stabilized by increasing the repulsion between the dispersed phase i.e., by increasing the electrostatic repulsion (which is long range) or steric repulsion (short range). Emulsifiers are amphiphiles that reduce the interfacial tension between the two phases and contribute to the stabilization of dispersed droplets with electrostatic or steric effects.