Sow-Hsin Chen - Böcker

Summarising recent research on the physics of complex liquids, this in-depth analysis examines the topic of complex liquids from a modern perspective, addressing experimental, computational and theoretical aspects of the field. Selecting only the most interesting contemporary developments in this rich field of research, the authors present multiple examples including aggregation, gel formation and glass transition, in systems undergoing percolation, at criticality, or in supercooled states. Connecting experiments and simulation with key theoretical principles, and covering numerous systems including micelles, micro-emulsions, biological systems, and cement pastes, this unique text is an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers looking to explore and understand the expanding field of complex fluids.

During the last decade, various powerful experimental tools have been developed, such as small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, X-ray and neutron reflection from interfaces, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and quasi-elastic multiple light scattering and large scale computer simulations. Due to the rapid progress brought about by these techniques, one wittnesses a resurgence of interest in the physicochemical properties of colloise, surfactants and macromolecules in solution. Although these disciplines have a long history, they are at present rapidly rapidly transforming into a new, interdisciplinary research area known as complex liquids of soft condensed matter physics: names that reflect the considerable involvement of the chemical and condensed matter physicists. This book is based on lectures given at NATO ASI held in the summer of 1991 and discusses these new developments, both in theory and experiment.

During the last decade there has been a renewed interest in research on supramolecular assemblies in solutions, such as micelles and microemulsions, not only because of their extensive applications in industries dealing with catalysts, detergency, biotechnology, and enhanced oil recovery, but also due to the development of new and more powerful experimental and theoretical tools for probing the microscopic behavior of these systems. Prominent among the array of the newly available experimental techniques are photon correlation spectroscopy, small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering, and neutron spin-echo and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies. On the theoretical side, the traditionally emphasized thermodynamic approach to the study of the phase behavior of self-assembled systems in solutions is gradually being replaced by statistical mechanical studies of semi-micro­ scopic and microscopic models of the assemblies. Since the statistical mechanical approach demands as its starting point the microscopic struc­ tural information of the self-assembled system, the experimental determina­ tion of the structures of micelles and microemulsions becomes of paramount interest. In this regard the scattering techniques mentioned above have played an important role in recent years and will continue to do so in the future. In applying the scattering techniques to the supramolecular species in solution, one cannot often regard the solution to be ideal. This is because the inter-aggregate interaction is often long-ranged since it is coulombic in nature and the interparticle correlations are thus appreciable.

Dynamics of Soft Matter: Neutron Applications provides an overview of neutron scattering techniques that measure temporal and spatial correlations simultaneously, at the microscopic and/or mesoscopic scale. These techniques offer answers to new questions arising at the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology. Knowledge of the dynamics at these levels is crucial to understanding the soft matter field, which includes colloids, polymers, membranes, biological macromolecules, foams, emulsions towards biological & biomimetic systems, and phenomena involving wetting, friction, adhesion, or microfluidics.Emphasizing the complementarities of scattering techniques with other spectroscopic ones, this volume also highlights the potential gain in combining techniques such as rheology, NMR, light scattering, dielectric spectroscopy, as well as synchrotron radiation experiments. Key areas covered include polymer science, biological materials, complex fluids and surface science.

This Advanced Study Institute was held at \-lellesley College, Wellesley, MA. , from 3 to 12 August 1980. It followed by four years the second "Capri ~,chool on Photon Correlation Spectroscopy". During the intervening period there had been many new applications of dynamic light scattering techniques to the study of systems whose properties depend either on collective molecular interactions or on the formation or activity of supramo1ecu1ar structures. Con­ sequently, emphasis at this conference was on light scattering studies of subjects such as dynamical correlations in dense polymer solutions, phase transitions in gels, spinodal decomposition of binary fluids, Benard instabilities in nonequilibrium fluids, the formation of micelles and phospholipid vesicles, and movements of the molecular assemblies of muscle tissue. The instructional pro­ gramme also included tutorial lectures on two complementary spec­ troscopic techniques which have benefited from dramatic advances in instrumentation, these being small angle X-ray (SAXS) and small angle neutron (SANS) scattering. Strong cold neutron and synchro­ tron X-ray sources have become available, and data now can be acquired rapidly with newly developed position-sensitive detectors. Several reviews of recent applications of SAXS and SANS were also provided. The organizers of the ASI hoped to provide a forum for theoreticians and experimentalists to assess advances in fields which, although related, were sufficiently different that a great deal of unfamiliar information could be communicated. The order­ ing of the papers in this volume closely approximates that of the talks presented at the Advanced Study Institute.

Dynamics of Soft Matter: Neutron Applications provides an overview of neutron scattering techniques that measure temporal and spatial correlations simultaneously, at the microscopic and/or mesoscopic scale. These techniques offer answers to new questions arising at the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology. Knowledge of the dynamics at these levels is crucial to understanding the soft matter field, which includes colloids, polymers, membranes, biological macromolecules, foams, emulsions towards biological & biomimetic systems, and phenomena involving wetting, friction, adhesion, or microfluidics.Emphasizing the complementarities of scattering techniques with other spectroscopic ones, this volume also highlights the potential gain in combining techniques such as rheology, NMR, light scattering, dielectric spectroscopy, as well as synchrotron radiation experiments. Key areas covered include polymer science, biological materials, complex fluids and surface science.

During the last decade, various powerful experimental tools have been developed, such as small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, X-ray and neutron reflection from interfaces, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and quasi-elastic multiple light scattering and large scale computer simulations. Due to the rapid progress brought about by these techniques, one witnesses a resurgence of interest in the physicochemical properties of colloids, surfactants and macromolecules in solution. Although these disciplines have a long history, they are at present rapidly transforming into a new, interdisciplinary research area generally known as complex liquids or soft condensed matter physics: names that reflect the considerable involvement of the chemical and condensed matter physicists. This book is based on lectures given at a NATO ASI held in the summer of 1991 and discusses these new developments, both in theory and experiment. It constitutes the most up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the entire field.

This book is based on lecture notes developed for a one-semester graduate course entitled “The Interaction of Radiation with Matter”, taught in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The main objective of the course is to teach enough quantum and classical radiation theory to allow students in engineering and the applied sciences to understand and have access to the vast literature on applications of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation in materials research. Besides presenting the fundamental physics of radiation interactions, the book devotes individual chapters to some of the important modern-day experimental tools, such as nuclear magnetic resonance, photon correlation spectroscopy, and the various types of neutron, x-ray and light-scattering techniques.

Dr W Kroll, a young post-doc working under Heisenberg at Leipzing in the 1930s, was forced to escape from the Nazis and eventually came to the National Taiwan University in 1941. He taught many of the advanced courses in theoretical physics for over two decades, and prepared a generation of physicists in Taiwan. A symposium on pure and applied physics was held in memory of Prof Kroll at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in August 1996. These proceedings, composed of papers contributed to the symposium by many of Prof Kroll's former students now reaching professorial ranks in the West, reflect in a small measure the legacy he left behind.