PHYS 4803/6205: Soft Matter Physics
Course Description: Soft matter systems are condensed ensembles of small objects whose size ranges from the nanometer to the micrometer. Though some of these systems are ’dry’, that is, comprising just the objects themselves, we will mainly be interested in particles immersed in a solvent, typically water. Soft materials combine solid-like and liquid-like traits. Common examples include liquid crystals (the stuff that is in flat electronic screens, from digital watches to TVs), foods (such as cheese and Jell-O), rubber, glue, liquid suspensions of medicines and vaccines, soapy water, cosmetics (such as creams and gels), the spindly skeleton of biological cells, and the extracellular matrix that holds our tissues together. We will study simplified models that strip away much of the chemical complexity of these systems but provide a powerful framework for classification and prediction. The first part of the course will be devoted to acquiring fundamentals in the thermodynamics and mechanics of fluids and solids. Then, we will discuss several soft matter archetypes including polymers, colloids, interfaces, membranes, and liquid crystals.
