Metal Colloids

101

[The basic points to know]

(Solution, Colloid, Suspension)-Particle Size

A COLLOID is any solid material larger than 1nm (nanometer) but not larger than 100nm mixed with a liquid.

Smaller particles than 1nm tent to be considered a SOLUTION.

Larger than 100nm is then called a SUSPENSION.

While we shall always find exceptions to the rule you will see that these values tend to remain constant in 99.9% of your every day experience.

(Metallic Colloids)-Each Metal is Unique

Recognize now that each metal is unique.  The process and method that works well for one metal may not be even remotely workable for another when making a metallic colloid.

When a metal is finely divided down to a colloid or possibly a solution level, the unique chemistry of that metal begins to show itself in a much more pronounced way than when it was sitting on your desk, in a bar form, just minding it's own business.

You also must consider the liquid that your colloid is mixed with as having potential (in some cases small, in others very great potential) for interaction with your metallic colloid.

I will provide an example to offer an easy insight to the issues you can expect when dealing with metallic colloids.

(Metallic Colloids - Example of various qualities of metal)

Silver - Water soluble, photo reactive

Gold - Not water soluble, not generally photo reactive (does reflect 99.9% of all infrared radiation) and in fact is one of the more difficult metals to break down into fine particles.

Given that silver is water soluble it also stands to reason that silver can be *an electrolyte as well.  This is important to understand as it is the central property that has made "colloidal silver" and the electrolysis process more commonly known as Electrically Isolated Silver (EIS for short) wildly popular over the past 10 years from a point of near obscurity.

An electric charge enables silver (in water) to go into a solution and a colloidal state.  The best process uses distilled water to avoid any reactions with other ingredients that might be in ordinary tap water.  Electrolysis of silver has the unique advantage of making a silver solution (silver sol) at low currents but able to sinter much larger particles in the colloid size range once the process dissolved enough silver to raise the current flow. (It can even make particles large enough to create a silver suspension.)

*An electrolyte - is a substance that when dissolved in water can add to it's ability to carry electric current.

Silver has this property making it easy to dissolve with a little battery and some distilled water.  In fact is requires very little energy.

Gold - Is not about to just dissolve for you with an electric charge and some distilled water.  The preferred method is to vaporize the gold in an electric arc in a glass of water.

It is possible to dissolve gold in a glass of salt water but I should point out now that you will not make a gold colloid but a suspension of gold that will fall to the bottom in a short while.  If you have a little gold wire it wouldn't hurt to give it a try just for the experience so you get an idea of how things work.

While the conditions surrounding gold chemistry do not make for an easy chemical method of making a colloid there are methods that I will discuss later down the road.

(Summary - The 3 fundamental process methods)

Now you have an idea of the 3 methods (though I have only described 2 in any length).

1. Arc/Vapor/Plasma - The use of electricity or other high energy form to vaporize metals in water.  The range of terms applies to the various power levels that are used.. for example arc/vapor might be used to describe any arc based vapor process but does not exclude Plasma.  Plasma is often used to describe a higher output stage that uses a large envelope of ionized gas that is also true of a standard electric arc under water.  For now the subtle variety of plasma states are too subtle and varied to get into.  Elsewhere you can be assured that I will detail this for those who can make use of the data or just want to know.

2. Electrolysis - EIS (Electrically Isolated Silver), can be used in a wide, wide range of 'electro-chemical' processing methods with metals and various solutions to do just about any metallic processing one can want.  In this discussion it is limited to the basic electrolysis however I mention the wide reaching potential of this basic tool (the electrolysis cell) because it is in fact applied to gold in the Ovo process, the method itself for colloidal gold production is in fact a reactive electrochemical process not electrolysis. (just electrolysis based)

3. Chemical - chemistry is another powerful avenue however the complexity of the real applications towards a specific colloid are so vast that to do more than mention it here would be impractical.  I will cover this subject in great detail as I introduce ORMUS and Precious metals refining as part of the information here.  It is essential that all forms of precious metals processing is covered to provide a complete understanding of the art.

I will cover these areas each in great depth as I compile this online book.

Metal_Colloids_102 - What is it used for?

Metal Colloids 103: Types of colloidal generators

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