coacervation
(kəʊæsəˈveɪʃən)
[ad. L. coacervātiōn-em, n. of action, f. coacervāre: see coacervate v.]
1. The action of heaping together, or fact of being heaped together; accumulation. Now rare or Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) 933 Chorus is a mesure of xxx modius and hath that name of coaceruacion, hepes. 1626 Bacon Sylva §799 The Equall Spreading of the Tangible Parts, and the Close Coacervation of them. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. ii. 14 Like damp hay, they heat and inflame by co-acervation. |
| fig. 1601 Bp. Barlow Defence 207 It being..not the coaceruation of places, but the true alleadging, which supports the truth. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Answ. §6 (1653) 29 To what purpose is that coacervation of Texts? 1852 Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. 292 The coacervation of proofs. |
2. concr. A mass heaped together.
rare or
Obs.| 1650 C. Elderfield Tythes 89 To..dispel that coacervation of tough humours about the throat. 1853 De Quincey Wks. (1862) XIV. vii. 181 To unshell..this existing Rome from its present crowded and towering coacervations. |
3. Chem. The action of forming a coacervate.
| 1929 De Jong & Kruyt in Proc. Konink. Akad. van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam XXXII. 849 (title) Coacervation (Partial miscibility in colloid systems). Ibid. 850 The word ‘unmixing’ having already a definite meaning... We introduce for this [sc. the phenomenon in colloid systems] the word coacervation. 1948 Glasstone Physical Chem. (ed. 2) xiv. 1254 Coacervation. Salting out of a hydrophilic sol frequently gives a liquid aggregate... This often appears in the form of viscous drops, instead of a continuous liquid phase. 1970 Sci. Jrnl. Feb. 62/3 Of the various ‘chemical’ methods of making microcapsules the best known is coacervation, a phase separation technique. |