Soft condensed matter
"Many materials are neither simple liquids nor crystalline solids of the type studied in other branches of solid state physics, and instead are conveniently classified as 'soft condensed matter'. Examples include glues, paints, soaps, polymer melts and most materials of biological origin. This book offers a coherent and clear introduction to the properties and behaviour of soft matter. It begins with a treatment of the general underlying principles: the relation of the structure and dynamics of solids and liquids to intermolecular forces, the thermodynamics and kinetics of phase transitions, and the principles of self-assembly. Then the specific properties of colloids, polymers, liquid crystals and self-assembling amphiphilic systems are treated within this framework. A concluding chapter illustrates how principles of soft matter physics can be used to understand properties of biological systems
Print Book, English, 2002
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002