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.
