flocculation

thumb|4x speed video of floc settling after adding flocculant polymers during a jar test.

In colloidal chemistry, flocculation is a process by which colloidal particles come out of suspension to sediment in the form of or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The action differs from precipitation in that, prior to flocculation, colloids are merely suspended, under the form of a stable dispersion (where the internal phase (solid) is dispersed throughout the external phase (fluid) through mechanical agitation) and are not truly dissolved in solution.