膠質

• 読み: こうしつ
• ローマ字: koshitsu
• 漢字の分解: 膠 (ko) — glue, gelatine; 質 (shitsu) — substance, quality
• 発音: /koː.ɕi.tsɯ/

意味

Colloid; a colloidal substance. A mixture in which microscopically dispersed insoluble particles are suspended throughout another substance.

A specialised chemistry and materials science term. Colloids (膠質) differ from true solutions (真の溶液) in that the dispersed particles (1–1000 nm) do not settle by gravity. Examples include milk (牛乳), fog (霧), smoke (煙), and gelatin (ゼラチン). 膠質化学 (colloid chemistry) is important in pharmacy (薬学), food science, and materials science. The Tyndall effect (チンダル現象) — scattering of light in colloids — is a diagnostic test for colloidal systems. Also written as コロイド using the loanword from 'colloid'.

例文

1. 牛乳は脂肪球がタンパク質に包まれた状態で分散している膠質の一例だ。
2. 膠質粒子は光を散乱するため、コロイド溶液はチンダル現象によって白く見える。
3. 医薬品の製剤設計では、薬剤を膠質粒子として分散させる技術が活用されている。

使い方ガイド

場面: chemistry, materials science, pharmacy, food science, physics

トーン: technical, academic

起源と歴史

Meiji-era Sino-Japanese translation: 膠 (ko) — glue, gelatine + 質 (shitsu) — substance, quality. 膠 refers to animal glue or paste, chosen because many colloidal substances (like gelatin and gum) are sticky and glue-like. The term translates the Greek-derived 'colloid' (kolla = glue + eidos = form).

文化的背景

時代: Meiji-Modern

世代: Adult

社会的背景: Educated