This book provides an introduction to this exciting and relativelynew subject with chapters covering natural and synthetic polymers,colloids, surfactants and liquid crystals highlighting the many andvaried applications of these materials. Written by an expert in thefield, this book will be an essential reference for people workingin both industry and academia and will aid in understanding of thisincreasingly popular topic. Contains a new chapter on biological soft matter Newly edited and updated chapters including updated coverageof recent aspects of polymer science. Contain problems at the end of each chapter to facilitateunderstanding

This book presents the theory of soft matter to students at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. It provides a basic introduction to theoretical physics as applied to soft matter, explaining the concepts of symmetry, broken symmetry, and order parameters; phases and phase transitions; mean-field theory; and the mathematics of variational calculus and tensors. It is written in an informal, conversational style, which is accessible to students from a diverse range of backgrounds. The book begins with a simple “toy model” to demonstrate the physical significance of free energy. It then introduces two standard theories of phase transitions—the Ising model for ferromagnetism and van der Waals theory of gases and liquids—and uses them to illustrate principles of statistical mechanics. From those examples, it moves on to discuss order, disorder, and broken symmetry in many states of matter, and to explain the theoretical methods that are used to model the phenomena. It concludes with a chapter on liquid crystals, which brings together all of these physical and mathematical concepts. The book is accompanied online by a set of “interactive figures”—some allow readers to change parameters and see what happens to a graph, some allow readers to rotate a plot or other graphics in 3D, and some do both. These interactive figures help students to develop their intuition for the physical meaning of equations. This book will prepare advanced undergraduate or early graduate students to go into more advanced theoretical studies. It will also equip students going into experimental soft matter science to be fully conversant with the theoretical aspects and have effective collaborations with theorists.

This book presents a compilation of self-contained chapters covering a wide range of topics within the broad field of soft condensed matter. Each chapter starts with basic definitions to bring the reader up-to-date on the topic at hand, describing how to use fluid flows to generate soft materials of high value either for applications or for basic research. Coverage includes topics related to colloidal suspensions and soft materials and how they differ in behavior, along with a roadmap for researchers on how to use soft materials to study relevant physics questions related to geometrical frustration.

The study of "soft matter" materials with complex properties has raised a number of interesting problems in basic physics, biology, and materials science, all of which promise new and important technological applications. After a review of chemical bonds and phase transitions, the authors treat topics such as surface phenomena, stability of colloidal systems, structural properties of polymers, and topological defects. The monograph's emphasis on underlying physical principles offers a coherent treatment of the great variety of research in the field.

Soft matter (polymers, colloids, surfactants, liquid crystals) are an important class of materials for modern and future technologies. They are complex materials that behave neither like a fluid nor a solid. This book describes the characteristics of such materials and how we can understand such characteristics in the language of physics.

Soft Matter science is concerned with soft materials such as polymers, colloids, liquid crystals, and foams, and has emerged as a rich interdisciplinary field over the last 30 years. Drawing on physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering, soft matter links fundamental scientific ideas to everyday phenomena. One such example is 'polymers', encountered in plastic materials and melted cheese, which illustrate how 'sliminess' emerges from the flow and form of giant molecules. This Very Short Introduction delves into the field of soft matter, looking beneath the appearances of matter into its inner structure. Tom McLeish shows how Brownian Motion - the random local motion of molecules that gives rise to 'heat' - is an underlying principle of soft matter. From hair conditioner to honey, he discusses how the shared physical properties and characteristics of these materials influence the way they behave, and their industrial applications. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Soft matters differ from hard ones essentially due to former's relatively weak interaction which is comparable to kBTrm (Trm = room temperature) — this results in the major characteristics of soft matters such as 'strong reactions upon weak actions'.Developed over a period of 10 years through soft matter physics lectures for both graduate and undergraduate students in Fudan University, this textbook not only concentrates on the basic interactions inside soft matters through a reductionist approach, but also introduces the exploratory works on the complexity of soft matters in methods of system science.Other important topics in soft matter physics which are included involve static and dynamic electrorheological (ER) effects — an important 'model animal' in the subject, granular media — which explains the thermodynamics of sands and its dynamics, and the Onsager principle of least energy dissipation rate which has been adapted in this textbook to see how it governs the optimal paths of a system's deviation from and restoration to equilibrium.The subject of soft matter physics is still in its infancy, making it highly exciting and attractive. If you like a challenging subject, you will most certainly fall in love with soft matter physics at first read!

This text offers an introduction to the properties and behaviour of soft matter. It begins with a treatment of the underlying principles, then discusses how the properties of certain substances and systems are treated within this framework.

Soft materials such as liquid crystals, polymers, biomaterials, and colloidal systems touch every aspect of our lives. Not surprisingly, the rapid growth of these fields over the past few decades has resulted in an explosion of soft matter research groups worldwide. Fundamentals of Soft Matter Science introduces and explores the scientific study of soft matter and molecular self-assembly, covering the major classifications of materials, their structure and characteristics, and everyday applications. Designed for beginners to the field with a basic scientific background, this readable book emphasizes conceptual understanding, minimizing detailed mathematical derivations. Each chapter is dedicated to a different group of soft materials, including liquid crystals, surfactants, polymers, colloids, and soft biomaterials. Each subject is broken down into the essential concepts: material structures and physical characteristics, some simple theoretical ideas, and important experimental methods. The book emphasizes commonly used experimental techniques and practical applications. Full color illustrations and photographs are incorporated throughout to help describe the systems and key concepts.

In a liquid crystal watch, the molecules contained within a thin film of the screen are reorientated each second by extremely weak electrical signals. Here is a fine example of soft matter: molecular systems giving a strong response to a very weak command signal. They can be found almost everywhere. Soft magnetic materials used in transformers exhibit a strong magnetic moment under the action of a weak magnetic field. Take a completely different domain: gelatin, formed from col lagen fibres dissolved in hot water. When we cool below 37°C, gelation occurs, the chains joining up at various points to form a loose and highly deformable network. This is a natural example of soft matter. Going further, rather than consider a whole network, we could take a single chain of flexible polymer, such as polyoxyethylene [POE = (CH CH O)N, 2 2 5 where N rv 10 ], for example, in water. Such a chain is fragile and may break under flow. Even though hydrodynamic forces are very weak on the molecular scale, their cumulated effect may be significant. Think of a rope pulled from both ends by two groups of children. Even if each girl and boy cannot pull very hard, the rope can be broken when there are enough children pulling.