Physics of Soft and Biological Matter 1 WS 2013/2014

Overview

Type

Lecture (2 SWS) and Tutorials (every 2nd week)

Lecturer

Prof. Dr. Christian Holm and Prof. Dr. Clemens Bechinger (Lecture); Dr. Jens Smiatek and Stefan Kesselheim (Tutorials)

Course language

English

Location and Time

October 17th, 2013 - February 6th, 2014

Lecture: Thu, 14:00 - 15:30 (Seminar room ICP 1.079, Allmandring 3)

Tutorials: Every second week on Thursday, 08:00-09:30 in CIP pool 1.033, ICP, Allmandring 3

Prerequisites

B. Sc. 5. Semester or Master

Scope

The lecture intends to give an overview about the physics behind soft and biological matter which has been established as a novel interdisciplinary research field over the last decades. Soft matter typically includes easily deformable objects like colloids, polymers/polyelectrolytes, membranes, liquid crystals as well as vesicles and micelles. Most soft matter effects are driven by electrostatic, van-der-Waals, solute-solvent as well as entropic interactions. Typical phenomena include order-disorder phase transitions or aggregation behavior. The lecture will focus on the physical principles behind the observed effects. In addition, fundamental principles and theories like the DLVO- and the Poisson-Boltzmann theory will be introduced. The interdisciplinary character of this research field is reflected by the presentation of experimental and theoretical work in addition to numerical simulation results.

Recommended literature

• Pierre Gilles de Gennes: Soft matter, Rev. Mod. Phys. 64, 645 (1992)
• Richard A. L. Jones: Soft Condensed Matter, Oxford University Press (2002)
• D. Fennell Evans and Hakan Wennerström: The Colloidal Domain - Where Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Technology Meet, Wiley-VCH (1999)
• Robert J. Hunter: Foundations of Colloid Science, Oxford University Press (2002)
• Gert R. Strobl: The Physics of Polymers: Concepts for Understanding Their Structures and Behavior, Springer (2007)
• Jean-Pierre Hansen and Ian R. McDonald: Theory of Simple Liquids, Academic Press (2006)
• Mohamed Daoud and Claudine E. Williams (Eds.): Soft Matter Physics, Springer (1999)
• Pierre Gilles de Gennes: Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics, Cornell University Press (1979)
• Ian W. Hamley: Introduction to Soft Matter, J. Wiley (2000).
• Maurice Kleman and Oleg G. Laverntovich: Soft Matter Physics: An Introduction, Springer (2003)
• Jacob Israelachvili: Intermolecular and Surface Forces, Academic Press (1992)
• Michael Rubinstein and Ralph H. Colby: Polymer Physics, Oxford University Press (2003)
• Gerhard Nägele: Lecture Notes: The Physics of Colloidal Soft Matter (2004)

Course Material

Date	Subject	Lecturer	Ressources
17.10.2013	Motivation and historical overview	Bechinger	Lecture Notes (181 KB) and Slides
24.10.2013	Many-particle systems: description of structural properties	Holm	Lecture Notes (1.19 MB)
31.10.2013	Pair interactions between dispersed particles	Bechinger	Lecture Notes (696 KB) Slides (3.33 MB)
07.11.2013	Poisson-Boltzmann theory	Holm	Lecture Notes (2.36 MB)
14.11.2013	Introduction to polymer physics	Holm	Lecture Notes (7.79 MB)
21.11.2013	Polyelectrolytes	Holm	Lecture Notes (3.45 MB)
28.11.2013	Phase transitions: general introduction	Holm
05.12.2013	Experimental techniques	Bechinger
12.12.2013	Phase transitions in 2D systems	Bechinger, Holm
19.12.2013	Xmas lecture: Soft matter food science	Bechinger, Holm
09.01.2014	Depletion interactions I	Bechinger
16.01.2014	Depletion interactions II	Holm
23.01.2014	tba.	Bechinger
30.01.2014	Biological soft matter	Holm
06.02.2014	Lab tour	Bechinger

Additional Material

• Markus Deserno, Christian Holm.
  Cell-model and Poisson-Boltzmann-theory: A brief introduction.
  In Electrostatic Effects in Soft Matter and Biophysics, pages 27–50. Edited by C. Holm, P. Kékicheff, R. Podgornik. Part of NATO Science Series II - Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, volume 46.
  Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Nl, 2001.
  [PDF] (262 KB) [DOI]

• S. Alexander, P. M. Chaikin, P. Grant, G. J. Morales, P. Pincus, D. Hone.
  Charge Renormalization, Osmotic-Pressure, And Bulk Modulus Of Colloidal Crystals - Theory.
  The Journal of Chemical Physics 80(11):5776–5781, 1984.
  [PDF] (706 KB)

• M. Aubouy, Emmanuel Trizac, Lyderic Bocquet.
  Effective charge versus bare charge: an analytical estimate for colloids in the infinite dilution limit.
  Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 36(22):5835–5840, 2003.
  [PDF] (106 KB)

Work sheets

• Worksheet 1 (zip-File with work sheet and literature): 1D-Random walk, Langevin equation and atomistic revolution
  • Slides: Simulating Brownian Motion (1.54 MB)
• Worksheet 2 (zip-File with work sheet and literature): Pair distribution functions and colloids in suspense
  • 2D-Molecular Dynamics simulation of Lennard-Jones particles (Java-Applet)
  • Colloids in suspense by Poon et al.; Physics World 9, 27, (1996)
• Worksheet 3 (zip-File with work sheet and literature): Electrostatic screening and polymer properties