In
materials science, dispersion is the fraction of atoms of a material exposed to the surface. In general:
:''D'' = ''N''
S/''N''
T
where ''D'' is the dispersion, ''N''
S is the number of surface atoms and ''N''
T is the total number of atoms of the material.
Dispersion is an important concept in heterogeneous
catalysis
Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...
, since only atoms that are exposed to the surface are able to play a role in catalytic surface reactions. Dispersion increases with decreasing crystallite size and approaches unity at a crystallite diameter of about 0.1 nm.
Related article
Emulsion dispersion
An emulsion dispersion is thermoplastics or elastomers suspended in a liquid state by means of emulsifiers.
Preparation
Emulsions are thermodynamically unstable liquid/liquid dispersions that are stabilized.
Emulsion dispersion is not about reac ...
References
Materials science
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