A sol is a colloidal suspension of solid particles (1 – 500 nanometres in size) in a liquid. Examples include blood, pigmented ink, and paint.
Artificial sols may be prepared by dispersion or condensation. Dispersion techniques include grinding solids to colloidal dimensions in a ball mill (dry or wet) and Beidig's arc method. Condensation or precipitation methods work by making the colloidal particle come out of solution into the colloidal phase, either by adding a precipitating agent (salt) or by changing the temperature. The stability of sols may be maintained by using dispersing agents.
Sols are commonly used in preparing sol-gels. Sols may be a component of total dissolved solids, since the particle size is small enough to pass through a two micrometre filter.
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