Soft Matter Physics by Masao Doi (with errata)

Soft Matter is a class of materials which include polymers, colloids, surfactants and liquid crystals. In practical terms, this means creams, gels, oils, plastics and rubber among other things widely used in modern manufacturing and day-to-day life.


1 What is soft matter?
1.1 Polymers
1.2 Colloids
1.3 Surfactants
1.4 Liquid crystals
1.5 What is common in soft matter?
1.6 Summary of this chapter
Further reading

2 Soft matter solutions 8
2.1 Thermodynamics of solutions 8
2.2 Phase separation 14
2.3 Lattice model 16
2.4 Polymer solutions 20
2.5 Colloidal solutions 22
2.6 Multi-component solutions 24
2.7 Summary of this chapter 25
Further reading 25
Exercises 25

3 Elastic soft matter 28
3.1 Elastic soft matter 28
3.2 Elasticity of a polymer chain 34
3.3 Kuhn’s theory for rubber elasticity 38
3.4 Polymer gels 42
3.5 Summary of this chapter 48
Further reading 48
Exercises 48

4 Surfaces and surfactants 51
4.1 Surface tension 51
4.2 Wetting 56
4.3 Surfactants 59
4.4 Inter-surface potential 64
4.5 Summary of this chapter 71
Further reading 71
Exercises 71

5 Liquid crystals
5.1 Nematic liquid crystals
5.2 Mean field theory for the isotropic–nematic transition
5.3 Landau–de Gennes theory
5.4 Effect of a spatial gradient on the nematic order
5.5 Onsager’s theory for the isotropic–nematic transition of rod-like particles
5.6 Summary of this chapter

6 Brownian motion and thermal fluctuations 93
6.1 Random motion of small particles 93
6.2 Brownian motion of a free particle 97
6.3 Brownian motion in a potential field 100
6.4 Brownian motion of particles of general shape 103
6.5 Fluctuation–dissipation theorem 105
6.6 Summary of this chapter 110
Exercises 111

7 Variational principle in soft matter dynamics 114
7.1 Variational principle for the dynamics of particle–fluid systems
7.2 Onsager principle
7.3 Diffusion of particles in dilute solutions
7.4 Diffusion of particles in concentrated solutions
7.5 Rotational Brownian motion of rod-like particles
7.6 Summary of this chapter
Further reading
Exercises

8 Diffusion and permeation in soft matter 137
8.1 Spatial correlation in soft matter solutions 137
8.2 Diffusio-mechanical coupling in particle sedimentation 145
8.3 Kinetics of phase separation 148
8.4 Diffusio-mechanical coupling in gels 154
Exercises 162

9 Flow and deformation of soft matter 165
9.1 Mechanical properties of soft matter 166
9.2 Molecular models 171
9.3 Viscoelasticity of non-entangled polymers 175
9.4 Viscoelasticity of entangled polymers 181
9.5 Rod-like polymers 189