[1] Dispersants are widely used to stabilize various industrial and artisanal products, such as paints, ferrofluids, and salad dressings.
The plasticizers or superplasticizers, used to improve the workability of pastes like concrete and clay, are typically dispersants.
Dispersants are used as plasticizers or superplasticizers in concrete formulations to lower the use of water while retaining the needed slump (flow) property.
[2] Similarly, dispersants are used as plasticizers in the gypsum slurry during wallboard manufacture, to reduce the amount of water used.
Dispersants in oil drilling aid in breaking up solids or liquids as fine particles or droplets into another medium.
[4] They may rapidly disperse large amounts of certain oil types from the sea surface by transferring it into the water column.
During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, unprecedented amounts of the dispersants Corexit 9500 and 9527 were used (approximately 7 million liters).