Short-range Electrical Forces between Charged Colloid Particles

Abstract

IN a previous communication in Nature ¹, I suggested that the short-range equilibria which have been proved to occur between montmorillonite lamellæ might be ascribed to electrical attractive forces due to a ‘crystalline’ layer of interlamellar cations, these forces being balanced by repulsive forces due to adsorbed layers of oriented molecules. The phenomenon is unlikely to be confined to montmorillonite. It is therefore of general interest to consider how such an arrangement might pass into the normal diffuse Gouy layer distribution as the separation between the lamellæ increases.