Statistical Thermodynamics Of Surfaces, Interfaces And Membranes

}Understanding the structural and thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes is important for both fundamental and practical reasons. Complex fluids and solids, important in the development of new materials, cannot be designed using trial and error methods due to the multiplicity of components and parameters. While these materials 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 which do not exist in bulk materials.This approach is the basis behind the theoretical presentation of Statistical Thermodynamics of Surfaces, Interfaces, and Membranes. Focusing on the large-scale properties of these systems, these notes are meant to supplement the usual treatments in books on colloid and interface science. The approach adapted here first presents the traditional approach and then investigates throughout to treat the rich diversity of phenomena investigated in the field of colloid and interface science such as interfacial tension, the roughening transition, wetting, interactions between surfaces, membrane elasticity, and self-assembly. The presentation is that of a set of lecture notes (used in graduate courses taught by the author) including worked examples and further problems. This book is aimed at physicists, physical chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists who are interested in the statistical mechanics that underlie the macroscopic, thermodynamic properties of surfaces, interfaces, and membranes.While the primary focus of the book is on the systems important in colloid and interface science, a more general goal is to introduce the reader to several theoretical methods that are useful in applications of statistical mechanics to materials. It is thus the hope that the depth and breadth of coverage will introduce the condensed matter physicist to colloid science and present to the physical chemist or material scientist, who may already be familiar with the underlying phenomena, a modern theoretical perspective. }

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