Introduction to Soft Matter

Soft matter materials include polymers, colloids, emulsions, amphiphiles, surfactants, membranes, liquid crystals and biomaterials. Although these materials seem very different, they have common structural and dynamic properties that are somewhere between those of crystalline solids and simple molecular liquids and gases. Soft matter is an interdisciplinary subject drawing not only from physics, chemistry and materials science but also from biology, biochemistry and engineering. These materials have a wide range of applications, such as in structural and packaging materials, foams and adhesives, detergents and cosmetics, paints, food additives and biological materials. Written in an “easy–to–follow style”, this textbook provides an introduction to this exciting subject with chapters covering natural and synthetic polymers, colloids, surfactants, biological soft matter and liquid crystals and the many and varied applications of these materials. It has been newly edited and has...