The study of capillarity is in the midst of a veritable explosion. What is offered here is not a comprehensive review of the latest research but rather a compendium of principles designed for the undergraduate student and for readers interested in the physics underlying these phenomena.

Motivated by a plethora of phenomena from nature, this textbook introduces into the physics of wetting of surfaces. After a brief discussion of the foundations of surface tension, its implementation for floating objects, capillary waves, bouncing droplets, walking of water striders, etc. is discussed. Furthermore, Marangoni flows, surface tension inspired instabilities, condensation and evaporation of droplets, liquid marbles, superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity (lotus effect) are introduced. All relevant concepts are illustrated by the numerous qualitative and quantitative exercises. Contents What is surface tension? Wetting of surfaces: the contact angle Surface tension-assisted floating of heavy and light objects and walking of water striders Capillary interactions between particles. Particles placed on liquid surfaces. Elasticity of liquid surfaces, covered by colloidal particles Capillary waves Oscillation of droplets Marangoni flow and surface instabilities Evaporation of droplets. The Kelvin and the coffee-stain effects Condensation, growth and coalescence of droplets and the breath-figure self-assembly Dynamics of wetting: bouncing, spreading and rolling of droplets (water hammer effect – water entry and drag-out problems)Superhydrophobicity and superoleophobicity: the Wenzel and Cassie wetting regimes The Leidenfrost effect. Liquid marbles: self-propulsion Physics, geometry, life and death of soap films and bubbles

Starting from the basic principles of wetting, electrowetting and fluid dynamics all the way up to those engineering aspects relevant for the development of specific devices, this is a comprehensive introduction and overview of the theoretical and practical aspects. Written by two of the most knowledgeable experts in the field, the text covers both current as well as possible future applications, providing basic working principles of lab-on-a-chip devices and such optofluidic devices as adaptive lenses and optical switches. Furthermore, novel e-paper display technology, energy harvesting and supercapacitors as well as electrowetting in the nano-world are discussed. Finally, the book contains a series of exercises and questions for use in courses on microfluidics or electrowetting. With its all-encompassing scope, this book will equally serve the growing community of students and academic and industrial researchers as both an introduction and a standard reference.

Offers a treatment of applied surface dynamics in relation to contact angles and surface tensions, providing a foundation for the subject and detailed presentations of recent techniques. The work supplies a theoretical framework for the study and measurement of surface tensions and contact angles, and acts as a day-to-day guide for laboratory pract

The first stage of the physics of long, flexible chains was pioneered by eminent scientists such as Debye, Kuhn, Kramers, and Flory, who formulated the basic ideas. In recent years, because of the availability of new experimental and theoretical tools, a second stage of the physics of polymers has evolved. In this book, a noted physicist explains the radical changes that have taken place in this exciting and rapidly developing field. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes points out the three developments that have been essential for recent advances in the study of large-scale conformations and motions of flexible polymers in solutions and melts. They are the advent of neutron-scattering experiments on selectively deuterated molecules; the availability of inelastic scattering of laser light, which allows us to study the cooperative motions of the chains; and the discovery of an important relationship between polymer statistics and critical phenomena, leading to many simple scaling laws. Until now, information relating to these advances has not been readily accessible to physical chemists and polymer scientists because of the difficulties in the new theoretical language that has come into use. Professor de Gennes bridges this gap by presenting scaling concepts in terms that will be understandable to students in chemistry and engineering as well as in physics.

This full-colour undergraduate textbook, based on a two semester course, presents the fundamentals of biological physics, introducing essential modern topics that include cells, polymers, polyelectrolytes, membranes, liquid crystals, phase transitions, self-assembly, photonics, fluid mechanics, motility, chemical kinetics, enzyme kinetics, systems biology, nerves, physiology, the senses, and the brain. The comprehensive coverage, featuring in-depth explanations of recent rapid developments, demonstrates this to be one of the most diverse of modern scientific disciplines. The Physics of Living Processes: A Mesoscopic Approach is comprised of five principal sections: • Building Blocks • Soft Condensed Matter Techniques in Biology • Experimental Techniques • Systems Biology • Spikes, Brains and the Senses The unique focus is predominantly on the mesoscale — structures on length scales between those of atoms and the macroscopic behaviour of whole organisms. The connections between molecules and their emergent biological phenomena provide a novel integrated perspective on biological physics, making this an important text across a variety of scientific disciplines including biophysics, physics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering and bioengineering. An extensive set of worked tutorial questions are included, which will equip the reader with a range of new physical tools to approach problems in the life sciences from medicine, pharmaceutical science and agriculture.

This book introduces the reader into the field of the physics of processes occurring in porous media. It targets Master and PhD students who need to gain fundamental understanding the impact of confinement on transport and phase change processes. The book gives brief overviews of topics like thermodynamics, capillarity and fluid mechanics in order to launch the reader smoothly into the realm of porous media. In-depth discussions are given of phase change phenomena in porous media, single phase flow, unsaturated flow and multiphase flow. In order to make the topics concrete the book contains numerous example calculations. Further, as much experimental data as possible is plugged in to give the reader the ability to quantify phenomena.

This book examines the relationship between transport properties and pore structure of porous material. Models of pore structure are presented with a discussion of how such models can be used to predict the transport properties of porous media. Portions of the book are devoted to interpretations of experimental results in this area and directions for future research. Practical applications are given where applicable, and are expected to be useful for a large number of different fields, including reservoir engineering, geology, hydrogeology, soil science, chemical process engineering, biomedical engineering, fuel technology, hydrometallurgy, nuclear reactor technology, and materials science. - Presents mechanisms of immiscible and miscible displacement (hydrodynamic dispersion) process in porous media - Examines relationships between pore structure and fluid transport - Considers approaches to enhanced oil recovery - Explores network modeling and perolation theory