Soft Matter Physics -

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Résumé :
What do colloids, fractals, liquid crystals, and polymers have in common? Nothing at first sight. Yet the distance scales, the energy transfers, the way these objects react to an external field are very similar. For the first time, this book offers an introduction to the physics of these soft materials in one single volume. A variety of experiments and concepts are presented, including the phenomena of capillarity and wetting, fractals, small volumes and large surfaces, colloids, surfactants, giant micelles and fluid membranes, polymers, and liquid crystals. Each chapter is written by experts in the field with the aim of making the book accessible to the widest possible scientific audience: graduate students, lecturers, and research scientists in physics, chemistry, and other disciplines. Nobel Prize winner Pierre-Gilles de Gennes inspired this book and has written a foreword.

Sommaire:
1. Droplets: Capillarity and Wetting.- 2. Fractals.- 3. Small Volumes and Large Surfaces: The World of Colloids.- 4. The Physicochemistry of Surfactants.- 5. From Giant Micelles to Fluid Membranes: Polymorphism in Dilute Solutions of Surfactant Molecules.- 6. Polymers Formed from Self-Assembled Structures.- 7. Polymer Materials.- 8. Polymer Solutions: A Geometric Introduction.- 9. Liquid Crystals: Between Order and Disorder.

I think that in these days when the number of students in physics and chemistry is declining steadily, it is necessary to adapt the high school curricula, leave out part of the physics of past centuries, and present more modern topics to young people. I would like to suggest that soft matter physics can be one of these subjects. This subject is linked with many phenomena in the real world, there are beautiful and simple experiments that can be performed, the mathematics to describe these systems is in itself fascinating (I already mentioned fractals, but some theories that describes the shapes of membranes and vesicles are cousins of those used in string theory) and finally, these products are of high technological value. This book is a rich source of inspiration for starting such a course. Physicalia, 2000/36/3 (..) The book design is catching with instructive and inspiring figures, which are often in colour and are of outstanding quality. (...) It awakes a love for the themes covered. It is a beautiful and nobly designed book, written with much didactiv commitment. Translated from the review of K. Stierstadt, Physikalische Bl?tter, 2001, 57, 5.