The Oxford Handbook of Soft Condensed Matter (Oxford Handbooks)

This Handbook serves both as an introduction and an overview of the field of soft condensed matter. The discussion covers topics ranging from the fundamentals of colloid science to the principles and action of surfactants, modern directions of research in liquid crystals, and the key properties of foams. The book also explores the fundamental physics that controls the structure and mechanics of granular matter; how the unusual and often dramatic mechanical properties of concentrated polymer systems are determined by the physics of entanglements; the complex structures formed by block copolymers and the methods of structure analysis; rubber elasticity and new emerging classes of rubber-elastic materials; the physics of polyelectrolytes; the solvent dynamics in polymer gels, in equilibrium and under mechanical stress; and the hierarchical structure and characteristics of an extracellular matrix. Cover Contents 1 Colloidal Suspensions Wilson C. K. Poon 1.1 Is matter granular? The 'colloids as atoms' paradigm 1.2 Do hard spheres crystallise? The physics of entropy 1.3 How to make a liquid: Interactions under control 1.4 What is a glass? Challenging arrest 1.5 Einstein's most useful contribution: Driven matter 1.6 'A mysterious colloid': Proteins and patchiness 1.7 Conclusion: Looking into the future 2 Surfactants Dominique Langevin 2.1 Surface tension 2.2 Surface rheology 2.3 Bulk aggregates 2.4 Microemulsions 2.5 Non-equilibrium systems 2.6 Emulsions and foams 3 Liquid Crystals Oleg D. Lavrentovich 3.1 Thermotropic and lyotropic systems 3.2 Order parameter 3.3 Elasticity 3.4 Surface anchoring 3.5 Topological defects 3.6 Polymer-liquid crystal hybrid materials 3.7 Liquid crystal-colloid hybrid systems 3.8 Dynamics 3.9 Applications of liquid crystals 4 Foams Denis Weaire and Stefan Hutzler Introduction 4.1 Statics and dynamics 4.2 The rules of equilibrium 4.3 Structure of foam 4.4 Key properties 4.5 Analogous systems 5 Physics of Granular Systems Raphael Blumenfeld, Sam F. Edwards and Stephen M. Walley 5.1 Introduction to granular matter 5.2 Structural description 5.3 Stress transmission 5.4 Statistical mechanics 5.5 Future directions 6 Dynamics of Entangled Polymers Ronald G. Larson and Zuowei Wang 6.1 Foundations of entangled polymer dynamics 6.2 Models of polymer dynamics in the linear regime 6.3 Models of polymer dynamics in the nonlinear regime 7 Block Copolymers: Thermodynamics, Dynamics, and Small-Angle Scattering Lee M. Trask, Nacú Hernandez and Eric W. Cochran 7.1 Phase behavior 7.2 Block copolymer dynamics 7.3 Small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering 8 Elastomers and Rubberlike Elasticity James E. Mark and Burak Erman 8.1 Preparation and structure of networks 8.2 Elasticity experiments and theories 8.3 Stress-strain-temperature relationships 8.4 Swelling and gel collapse 8.5 Elastomers with internal microstructure 9 Polyelectrolyte Solutions and Gels Andrey V. Dobrynin 9.1 Dilute salt-free polyelectrolyte solutions 9.2 A polyelectrolyte chain in salt solutions 9.3 Semidilute polyelectrolyte solutions 9.4 Phase separation in polyelectrolyte solutions 9.5 Polyelectrolyte gels 10 Fluid Transport in Gels Masao Doi 10.1 Equilibrium state of non-ionic gels 10.2 Dynamics of non-ionic gels 10.3 Dynamics of ionic gels 11 Order and Disorder in the Extracellular Matrix Astrid van der Horst and Gijs J. L. Wuite 11.1 The building blocks: Protein synthesis and structure 11.2 Hierarchical supramolecular organization 11.3 Linking structure and function 12 Cell Cytoskeleton Matthieu Piel and Raphael Voituriez Introduction 12.1 Cytoskeleton components 12.2 Coarse-grained models of the cytoskeleton 12.3 Cell migration 12.4 Cell polarity 13 Biological Fluid Interfaces and Membranes Aidan T. Brown and Pietro Cicuta 13.1 Fluid interfaces and films 13.2 Membrane mechanics 13.3 Dynamics 13.4 Multicomponent membranes 13.5 Membranes in cell biology Index Soft condensed matter is a relatively new topic. Condensed matter has typically referred to more traditional liquids, which have a long history of study, or to solids, which have focused more commonly on hard materials, driven in large measure by the importance of structural materials or the metals and semiconductors which drove the rapid evolution of microelectronics. It is only relatively recently, over the past 20 to 30 years, that soft condensed matter has matured into its own identifiable field. However, the field is an amalgam of many subfields, and many of these have themselves much longer histories. This handbook serves as an overview of many of these topics. Because of the great breadth, it is impossible to include them all; nevertheless, the key subjects of soft condensed matter are represented here. Together, they form both an introduction and an overview of the field. Each topic, and its representing Chapter, could have been a full size book - in fact, there are a number of such books on many of the topics covered in the handbook. Our aim here was to give a current snapshot of the field, identify the key principles at play and the most prominent (and promising) ways of its further development, provide essential references for anyone to follow the subject, but not necessarily go into a lot of detail on each topic. This handbook will provide the reader with a profound introduction to the key subjects comprising the relatively new topic of Soft Condensed Matter. It will provide students and researchers with an authoritative overview of the field, identify key principles at play, and the most prominent ways of further development.