PH5611: Soft Matter Physics

L-T-P-C: 3-0-0-3

Prerequisites: PH5001 , PH 5005 , PH 5006

Syllabus

Module 1: Introduction to soft condensed matter

( Lecture hours: 14 , Tutorial hours: 0 , Lab hours: 0 )

Overview of soft matter systems, energies and timescales, Brownian motion and thermal fluctuations, phase transitions, self-assembly, Hydrodynamics of simple fluids, introduction to rheology, Light scattering and microscopy techniques, Preamble to soft matter studies using computational approaches .

Module 2: Colloids

( Lecture hours: 8 , Tutorial hours: 0 , Lab hours: 0 )

Introduction to colloidal systems and their properties, Forces and interactions, Brownian motion of non-interacting particles, Stability and phase behaviour of colloids, flow and rheological properties .

Module 3: Liquid crystals

( Lecture hours: 8 , Tutorial hours: 0 , Lab hours: 0 )

Common liquid crystal phases, birefringence, nematic order parameter, Mean field theory for nematic-isotropic phase transition, Landau-de Gennes theory, Onsager's theory for rod-like particles, Fréedericksz transition .

Module 4: Surfactants

( Lecture hours: 6 , Tutorial hours: 0 , Lab hours: 0 )

Surface tension, surface free energy, wetting, Liquid droplet on a solid surface, Surfactant and surfactant solution, inter-surface potential, self-assembly .

Module 5: Polymers

( Lecture hours: 6 , Tutorial hours: 0 , Lab hours: 0 )

Ideal chain, freely jointed chain model and Flory theory, Worm-like chain model, polymer rheology, Static light scattering and Zimm plot, Introduction to biopolymers .

Study Materials

Textbooks

  1. Soft Condensed Matter, Richard A. L. Jones, Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics (2002), ISBN: 978-0-19-850589-1
  2. Soft Matter Physics, Masao Doi, Oxford University Press (2013), ISBN: 978-0-19-965295-2

References

  1. Principles of Condensed Matter Physics, P. M. Chaikin and T. C. Lubensky, Cambridge University Press (2004), ISBN: 0521794501
  2. The Theory of Polymer Dynamics, M. Doi and S. F. Edwards, Oxford Science Publications (1988), ISBN: 0198520336