No label defined (Q4420616)

The book is devoted to the investigation of surfaces, interfaces and membranes in the field of soft matter physics. Safran`s approach is to treat these soft materials as dispersions and then to investigate the internal interfaces. The book has eight chapters, each beginning with an introduction where the phenomenon to be studied is explained and ending with a problems section and references for further reading. After an introductory chapter on mixtures and interfaces, chapter 2 describes the properties of a single isolated interface. In chapter 3 fluctuations of interfaces are discussed, while chapter 4 is devoted to the case of three coexisting interfaces in the context of wetting. The problem of interactions between rigid, flat interfaces is addressed in chapter 5. In the following chapter the theory of interacting fluctuating surfaces is treated based on a discussion of fluid membranes whose free energy is described as a function of their curvature. While in the previous two chapters the properties of and interactions between flat interfaces and nearly flat membranes have been considered, the focus of chapter 7 is on the statistical thermodynamics of colloidal dispersions that consist of solid or fluid particles in a solvent. The last chapter finally gives an analysis of self-assembling dispersions such as micelles, vesicles, and microemulsions where special attention is paid to sizes and shapes of the aggregates. To summarize, one can say that the book is a well-written introduction to the study of interfaces in complex multicomponet systems.