Colloidal in the context of Intermediate lobe

A mordant or dye fixative is a substance used to set (i.e., bind) dyes on fabrics. It does this by forming a coordination complex with the dye, which then attaches to the fabric (or tissue). It may be used for dyeing fabrics or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. Although mordants are still used, especially by small batch dyers, they have been largely displaced in industry by substantive dyes.

The term mordant comes from the Latin mordere, "to bite". In the past, it was thought that a mordant helped the dye "bite" onto the fiber so that it would hold fast during washing. A mordant is often a polyvalent metal ion, and one example is chromium (III). The resulting coordination complex of dye and ion is colloidal and can be either acidic or alkaline.

A food paste is a semi-liquid colloidal suspension, emulsion, or aggregation used in food preparation or eaten directly as a spread. Pastes are often highly spicy or aromatic, are often prepared well in advance of actual usage, and are often made into a preserve for future use. Common pastes are some fruit preserves, curry pastes, and nut pastes. Purées are food pastes made from already cooked ingredients.

Some food pastes are considered to be condiments and are used directly, while others are made into sauces, which are more liquidy than paste. Ketchup and prepared mustard are pastes that are used both directly as condiments and as ingredients in sauces.

Ferrofluid is a dark coloured liquid that is attracted to the poles of a magnet. It is a colloidal liquid made of nanoscale ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic particles suspended inside acarrier fluid (usually an organic solvent or water). Each magnetic particle is thoroughly coated with a surfactant to inhibit clumping. Large ferromagnetic particles can be ripped out of the homogeneous colloidal mixture, forming a separate clump of magnetic dust when exposed to strong magnetic fields. The magnetic attraction of tiny nanoparticles is weak enough that the surfactant's Van der Waals force is sufficient to prevent magnetic clumping or agglomeration. Ferrofluids usually do not retain magnetization in the absence of an externally applied field and thus are often classified as "superparamagnets" rather than ferromagnets. A recent review article titled "Magnetic nanofluids (Ferrofluids): Recent advances, applications, challenges, and future directions", provides a pedagogical description of magnetic fluids, with the necessary background, key concepts, physics, experimental protocols, design of experiments, challenges, and future directions.

In contrast to ferrofluids, magnetorheological fluids (MR fluids) are magnetic fluids with larger particles. That is, a ferrofluid contains primarily nanoparticles, while an MR fluid contains primarily micrometre-scale particles. The particles in a ferrofluid are suspended by Brownian motion and generally will not settle under normal conditions, while particles in an MR fluid are too heavy to be suspended by Brownian motion. Particles in an MR fluid will therefore settle over time because of the inherent density difference between the particles and their carrier fluid. As a result, ferrofluids and MR fluids have very different applications.