scope:

This Technical Report addresses the stability characterization of liquid dispersions (suspensions, emulsions, foams and mixtures thereof) for applications, such as new product design, optimization of existing products, quality control during processing and during usage of the product. The stability of a dispersion in the sense of this Technical Report is defined in terms of the change in one or more physical properties over a given time period. Stability can be either monitored (determined) in real time or predicted on the basis of physical quantities related to stability. In the case of very stable dispersions, procedures that accelerate the changes under consideration or accelerated aging tests administered over a shorter time scale can be appropriate. Shelf life can be estimated based on the observed rate of the change in the physical property and the user-required specifications for the product. Guidelines are given for choosing relevant measurements that can be used for the ranking, identification and quantification of instability.