text: Different from electrostatics, sterically stabilized suspensions rely on the physical interaction of polymer chains attached to the surface of the particles to keep the suspension stabilized; the adsorbed polymer chains act as a spacer to keep the suspended particles separated at a sufficient distance to prevent the Hamaker attraction from dominating and pulling the particles out of suspension. The polymers are typically either grafted or adsorbed onto the surface of the particle. With grafted polymers, the backbone of the polymer chain is covalently bonded to the particle surface. Whereas an adsorbed polymer is a copolymer composed of lyophobic and lyophilic region, where the lyophobic region non-covalently adheres to the particle surface and the lyophilic region forms the steric boundary or spacer.