Gels and their uses
Find out about the important role gels play in our daily lives, from jellies to contact lenses, in this article from the ‘Avogadro’s lab’ series.
What do you get if you turn a solution inside out? Let’s think about a solution of sugar in water: there are lots of water molecules (the solvent) which are all touching and making a 3D network; the sugar molecules (the solute) are spread evenly throughout the solution at large distances from one another. On the other hand, if we take a 3D network of a solid and spread molecules such as water evenly throughout the network, we might consider this to be an ‘inside out’ solution.
This property of gelatine led to the name we still use for these materials today: gels. This term was coined by Scottish chemist Thomas Graham in the 19th century. Even though a gel will behave like a solid, most of its weight is often fluid. This year’s Royal Society of Chemistry Global Experiment explores hydrogels, a class of gels that trap water. Hydrogels are widely used in everyday products such as nappies, hair gels, contact lenses, wound dressings and controlled release drug delivery systems.
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