Statistical Thermodynamics Of Surfaces, Interfaces, And Membranes / Edition 1

by Samuel Safran

Overview

Understanding the structural and thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes is important for both fundamental and practical reasons. Important applications include coatings, dispersants, encapsulating agents, and biological materials. Soft materials, important in the development of new materials and the basis of many biological systems, cannot be designed using trial and error methods due to the multiplicity of components and parameters. While these systems can sometimes be analyzed in terms of microscopic mixtures, it is often conceptually simpler to regard them as dispersions and to focus on the properties of the internal interfaces found in these systems. The basic physics centers on the properties of quasi-two-dimensional systems embedded in the three-dimensional world, thus exhibiting phenomena that do not exist in bulk materials. This approach is the basis behind the theoretical presentation of Statistical Thermodynamics of Surfaces, Interfaces, and Membranes. The approach adapted allows one to treat the rich diversity of phenomena investigated in the field of soft matter physics (including both colloid/interface science as well as the materials and macromolecular aspects of biological physics) such as interfacial tension, the roughening transition, wetting, interactions between surfaces, membrane elasticity, and self-assembly. Presented as a set of lecture notes, this book is aimed at physicists, physical chemists, biological physicists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists who are interested in the statistical mechanics that underlie the macroscopic, thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes. This paperback edition contains all the material published in the original hard-cover edition as well as additional clarifications and explanations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367091958
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/13/2019
Series:	Frontiers in Physics
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Samuel A. Safran has been a professor in the department of Materials and Interfaces at Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, since 1990 and is the first incumbent of the Steinfeld Professorial Chair. He was appointed Vice President of the Weizmann Institute in 2001 after serving as Dean of its Feinberg Graduate School for six years. He has been a senior staff physicist in the Complex Fluid Physics group at Exxon Research and Engineering, Annandale, New Jersey. His research applies the theoretical concepts of condensed matter physics to the understanding of soft matter including the structure, phase behavior, and dynamics of interfaces, membranes, and self-assembly. Specific topics include phase behavior and structure of colloidal, self-assembling and biomaterials, surface phase transitions, wetting dynamics, and the mechanics/thermodynamics of cells and membranes. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, on the editorial board of Langmuir, and an editor of several volumes on the physics of complex fluids.

Table of Contents

* NOTE: Each Part begins with an Introduction, and ends with Problems and References. Mixtures and Interfaces * Complex Materials and Interfaces * Review of Classical Statistical Mechanics * Phase Separation in Binary Mixtures * Differential Geometry of Surfaces * Review of Hydrodynamics Interfacial Tension * Free Energy of Surfaces and Interfaces * Surface/Interfacial Tension Theory * Surface-Active Agents Fluctuations of Interfaces * Free Energy of a Fluctuating Interface * Thermal Fluctuations of Interfaces * Capillary Instabilities of Interfaces * Roughening Transition of Solid Surfaces Wetting of Interfaces * Equilibrium * Long-Range Interactions: Macroscopic Theory * Fluctuations of the Contact Line * Equilibrium: Microscopic Description * Dynamics of Wetting Interactions of Rigid Interfaces * Molecular Interactions * Van der Waals Interaction Energies * Continuum Theory of van der Waals Forces * Electrostatic Interactions * Solute-Induced Interactions Flexible Interfaces * Fluid Membranes and Surfactants * Curvature Elasticity of Fluid Membranes * Curvature Moduli * Fluctuations of Fluid Membranes * Interactions of Fluid Membranes Colloidal Dispersions * Dispersions of Interacting Particles * Colloid interactions: DLVO Theory * Long-Range Electrostatic Interactions * Steric Interactions: Polymer Adsorption * Structure of Colloidal Aggregates Self-Absorbing Interfaces * Micelles * Vesicles * Microemulsions * Spongelike and Bicontinuous Phases

Editorial Reviews

Focusing on the large scale properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes, this presentation is meant to supplement the usual treatments in books on colloid and interface science. The author first presents the traditional approach, then investigates how thermal fluctuations affect the simple description of the system. This philosophy is used throughout to treat the rich diversity of phenomena investigated, such as interfacial tension, the roughening transition, wetting, interactions between surfaces, membrane elasticity, and self-assembly. Worked examples and problems are included. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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