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A hydrosol is a colloid whose continuous liquid medium is water. For example, small solid particles dispersed in water form a hydrosol when they remain dispersed on the relevant observational timescale. This differs from a molecular solution: the dispersed objects are particles with interfaces, rather than individual dissolved ions or molecules.

Surface charge and adsorbed layers can inhibit aggregation. Changing ionic strength can alter electrostatic screening and destabilize a charged hydrosol, while Brownian motion competes with settling. “Hydro” identifies the dispersion medium; it does not specify one particle composition or one stabilization mechanism.

Robert H. Dinegar helped develop a model for producing monodisperse sulfur hydrosols. Separating a short period of nucleation from subsequent particle growth explains how particles can begin growing at similar times and acquire a narrow size distribution.^[ref]

Victor K. La Mer developed, with Robert H. Dinegar, a model linking nucleation and particle growth to the formation of monodisperse sulfur hydrosols. A brief nucleation interval followed by growth provides a mechanism for narrowing the spread of particle sizes.^[ref]