Soft Condensed Matter Physics

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/SmalyukhLab/SoftMatter/

Ivan I. Smalyukh
Department of Physics & Liquid Crystals Materials Research Center University of Colorado at Boulder

Soft Condensed Matter Physics

"Soft Condensed Matter Physics " is a course about the science of liquid crystals, polymers, plastic crystals, biological membranes, biopolymers, block copolymers, molecular monolayers, colloids, nanoparicle suspensions, emulsions, foams, gels, elastomers, ferrofluids, granular materials, cells, tissues, filamentous networks, electro-rheological fluids, paints, foods, inks, cosmetics and other soft materials. Is there something in common between these very 2 different soft matter systems?

What do we mean by Soft Condensed Matter?

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Nobel prize in physics 1991): All physicochemical systems that have large response functions.(i.e., a mild external influence has a big effect) Helmut Mhwald (Editorial board member, Soft Matter): Materials that are held together by non-covalent interactions. These interactions are typically weak, often on the order of kT and thus comparable to entropic forces. Richard A. L. Jones, in Soft Condensed Matter: Materials in states of matter that are neither simple liquids nor crystalline solids of the type studied in other branches of solid state physics. Before tackling actual complex soft matter systems, we need to understand (amongst other things) these response functions, non3 covalent interactions and entropic forces.

What do we mean by Soft Condensed Matter?

The term usually refers to states of matter which are neither simple liquids nor crystalline solids. Includes many familiar types of matter soap, yoghurt, paint, liquid crystals, putty.but also much of our bodies including cell membranes and the cytoplasm inside. In general we will be dealing with lengthscales intermediate between atomic and macroscopic; these are often known as mesoscopic. Quantum mechanics will not therefore be very useful; the predominant techniques we will use will be statistical. Mean field theories will be found to be useful, as you have seen before, to describe the behaviour of large numbers of molecules. Although dealing with ensembles of molecules, we will find that thermal energy is comparable with the energies giving rise to distortion and interaction energies, so Brownian motion and fluctuations are important. This is a key difference with 'hard condensed matter' for which thermal fluctuations are not important.

Liquid Crystals (LCs)

CN
Crystal Flow like liquids; Anisotropic like solid crystals; liquid crystal Isotropic fluid

n
Average local molecular orientations in liquid crystals are described n by the director with head-tail symmetry n

Nematic liquid crystal

director

Nematic liquid crystal

center of mass locations

director

Only orientational order (crystal), no positional order (liquid)

Very useful soft materials

Response to tiny external fields Flexible displays

voltage ~ 1V

f ~ 1kHz

~
Fujicake, Sato, & Murashige, Tokyo, Japan.

Learning from nature: soft materials are useful for a variety of applications;

J. Hwang et al., Nature materials 4, 383 (2005)

Periodic structure of molecular orientations with a defect layer.

10

Flat Panel LCD TVs just an example

Plastic Crystals no orientational order

12

13

Colloids
Colloids are systems in which one of the systems (at least) has dimensions of ~1m or less. Thus many aspects of nanotechnology are essentially colloidal. Examples: Solid in liquid such as Indian Ink or sunscreen Suspension Liquid in Liquid such as mayonnaise or salad dressing Emulsion Gas in Liquid such as beer or soap foam Foam Gas in Solid such as bath sponge or ice cream Sponge

15

Semi-flexible biopolymers
DNA
16 micron length 2 nm in diameter 40 nm persistence length

Neurofilament
5 - 20 micron length 12 nm in diameter ~ 220 nm persistence length

Wormlike Micelle
( polybutadiene-polyethyleneoxide )

Actin

10 50 micron length ~ 15 nm in diameter ~ 500 nm persistence length

2 30 micron length 7-8 nm in diameter ~ 16 micron persistence length

18

20

We are interested in understanding

(1) Interactions / Forces What are the interactions between constituents? How do these interactions arise? How do these interactions affect self-assembly, structure, dynamics, rheology, transport properties? (2) Self-Assembly / Collective Properties Novel Phases (Equilibrium Statistical Physics) Role of shape, charge, concentration, conformation, size, ... Structure, Dynamics, Rheology, Optical Properties, ... Beyond Equilibrium: Metastable phases, glasses,

21

Unifying properties of soft matter

Soft Matter is susceptible to small external influences (large response functions) Has a complex microscopic structure, composition and internal dynamics Means such systems as colloids, polymers, liquid crystals, surfactants, and biological matter Exhibits a huge range of different time and length scales Usually Entropy Dominates! (But not quantum mechanics!)

22

Useful Books
(1) P.M. Chaikin & T.C. Lubensky, Principles of Condensed Matter Physics (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000); (2) R.G. Larson, The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids (Oxford Univ. Press, 1999); (3) P-G de Gennes and J. Prost, The Physics of Liquid Crystals (Clarendon, Oxford, 1993), 2nd Ed. (4) R.A.L. Jones, Soft Condensed Matter (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003); (5) I. W. Hamley, Introduction to Soft Matter (Wiley, 2000); (6) M. Kleman and O. Lavrentovich, Soft Matter Physics: an introduction (Springer, 2003); (7) M. Daound and C.E. Williams (eds.), Soft Matter Physics (Springer, 1999); (8) P. Oswald and P. Pieranski, Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals (Taylor & Francis, 2005); (9) P. Oswald and P. Pieranski, Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals (Taylor & Francis, 2006).

23

Additional Texts
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. RAL Jones Soft Condensed Matter OUP 2002 D Tabor Gases, Liquids and Solids, 3rd ed CUP 1991 M Daoud and CE Williams, Soft Matter Physics, Springer 1999 IW Hamley, Introduction to Soft Matter, Wiley 2000 P Nelson, Biological Physics, Freeman 2003 KW Dill and S Bromberg, Molecular Driving Forces, Garland Science 2003 SA Safran, Statistical Thermodynamics of Surfaces, Interfaces and Membranes, Addison Wesley 1994 M Daune, Molecular Biophysics, OUP 1999 JN Israelachvili Intermolecular and Surface Forces, Academic 1985 M Rubenstein and R Colby Polymer Physics,OUP 2003 PG de Gennes, F Brochard-Wyart and D Qur, Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena Springer 2002 ME Cates and MR Evans, Soft and Fragile Matter, IoP 2000 IM Ward Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers, Wiley 1983 IM Ward and J Sweeney, An Introduction to the Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers, Wiley 2004 S Vogel Life in Moving Fluids Princeton 1994 RAL Jones Soft Machines OUP 2004 J Goodwin Colloids and Interfaces with Surfactants and Polymers Wiley 2004 M Doi Introduction to Polymer Physics OUP 1992 R Balescu Statistical Dynamics, Imperial College Press 1997 D Boal Mechanics of the Cell, CUP 2002 DC Bassett Principles of Polymer Morphology CUP 1981 AM Donald, AH Windle and S Hanna, Liquid Crystalline Polymers, CUP 2006 JR Waldram, The theory of thermodynamics WCK Poon and D Andelman, eds, Soft Condensed Matter Physics in Molecular and Cell Biology, Taylor and Francis 2006