Download or read book Soft Matter, Volume 2 written by Gerhard Gompper and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-02-10 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soft Matter encompasses a wide range of systems of varying components, including synthetic and biological polymers, colloids, and amphiphiles. The distinguishing features of these systems is their characteristic size, which is much larger than that of their atomic counterparts, and their characteristic energy, which is much smaller. Because of their ability to assemble themselves into complex structures, they form the major components of biological systems and technological applications. This second volume of the unique interdisciplinary "Soft Matter" series comprehensively describes colloids and their properties. The structural and thermodynamic properties of mixtures of rod-like and spherical colloids and of mixtures colloids and polymers, as well as the dynamical behavior of rod-like colloids are treated in depth. Again leading scientists have contributed articles that both introduce readers to this field, and serve as a source of reference for experts.