An excellent texbook on a fashionable subject
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What do colloids, polymers, amphiphiles and liquid crystals have in common? Well, nothing at first sight. Yet all these diverse materials have common structural, and most importantly dynamic properties that fall between those of crystalline solids and simple molecular liquids and gases. Many such materials are familiar from everyday life, including glues, food, pigment paints,detergents, etc. In soft condensed matter the most important features are probably the following three: Universality, effect of Fluctuations, and Self-Assembly properties. Prof. Jones, a quite well-known researcher in the
field of soft matter, in this single volume textbook has attempted to present the subject at an introductory level, yet without losing much of clarity. The book is divided in ten chapters and Prof. Jones start his discussion by defining
what soft matter really is, and discussing the intermolecular forces and timescales operating in these systems. It is worth noticing that a very clear, albeit short discussion, on the glass transition of liquids is included in the second chapter, where the free volume theory is totally exposed as inadequate. I
have to say that coming from a polymer science background this is probably one of the very few books, that simply does not explain glass transition by the much celebrated (and also mistaken) free volume theory, but proceeds further.
Following the first two chapters, the material of the book may be divided into two categories. The first category deals with specific systems of soft condensed matter, where colloidal dispersions, polymers, liquid crystals, and bio-polymers
are covered in chapters 4, 5, 7, and 10 respectively. The second category involves the discussion of more general concepts appearing in soft matter, like phase transitions, gelation, and supramolecular self-assembly.
Overall, the book is really very well written and in some parts the material included is discussed quite elegantly (for example the Casimir effect in chapter four). It is quite difficult most of the times to write a scientific book, and yet avoid an
overload of mathematics, but rather focus on the principles and manage to explain them elaborately. In addition, important references for further reading are suggested at the end of each chapter, and in two appendices a brief discussion on statistical mechanics aspects, and Brownian motion is given. My only objection to Prof. Jones' excellent textbook, is probably the relatively small part devoted to the polymer crystallinity in the solid state, and also to the total omission of the subject of deformation, yield and fracture of polymers. The inclusion of these subjects, would have certainly increased the size of the book, but the text would have also been far more complete. The book is mostly addressed to senior undergraduate physics students, and it is clear that it has been derived by the author's lectures in the class. Students of other fields (materials science, chemical engineering and chemistry) will
certainly find the book of value. The book is at an introductory level, but familiarity with the basics of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics and polymer science will certainly boost the level of understanding of the reader.
Concluding, I would definitely recommend this book to everyone who is interested in soft condensed matter.
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