Dispersity

In physical and organic chemistry, the dispersity is a measure of the heterogeneity of sizes of molecules or particles in a mixture. A collection of objects is called monodisperse if the objects have the same size, shape, or mass. A sample of objects that have an inconsistent size, shape and mass distribution is called polydisperse. The objects can be in any form of chemical dispersion, such as particles in a colloid, droplets in a cloud, crystals in a rock, or polymer molecules in a solvent. Polymers can possess a distribution of molecular mass; particles often possess a wide distribution of size, surface area and mass; and thin films can possess a varied distribution of film thickness.