Colloid Colloid In chemistry, a colloid is a mixture in which one substance of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Sometimes the dispersed substance alone is called the colloid; the term colloidal suspension refers unambiguously to the overall mixture (although a narrower sense of the word "suspension" is distinguished from colloids by larger particle size). Unlike a solution, whose solute and solvent constitute only one phase, a colloid has a dispersed phase (the suspended particles) and a continuous phase (the medium of suspension). To qualify as a colloid, the mixture must be one that does not settle or
Chemistry: A Volatile History of a flame – this led Cavendish to name the gas inflammable air, which he believed to be one and the same as phlogiston. Cavendish, though he did not realise it, made an important observation about burning phlogiston in air; a dewy liquid was formed on the inside of the glassware: water. This should have had enormous repercussions for the whole scientific community in the 1700s, who still believed water to be an elemental substance. Yet, if water could be "made" by burning inflammable air, then water is "not" an element, but a compound. However, it simply did not occur