During the last decade, various powerful experimental tools have been developed, such as small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, X-ray and neutron reflection from interfaces, neutron spin-echo spectroscopy and quasi-elastic multiple light scattering and large scale computer simulations. Due to the rapid progress brought about by these techniques, one witnesses a resurgence of interest in the physicochemical properties of colloids, surfactants and macromolecules in solution. Although these disciplines have a long history, they are at present rapidly transforming into a new, interdisciplinary research area generally known as complex liquids or soft condensed matter physics: names that reflect the considerable involvement of the chemical and condensed matter physicists. This book is based on lectures given at a NATO ASI held in the summer of 1991 and discusses these new developments, both in theory and experiment. It constitutes the most up-to-date and comprehensive summary of the entire field.

Inhalt

to the physics of complex "fluids".- Some aspects of the statistical mechanics of concentrated colloidal suspensions.- The structure and dynamics of strongly interacting charged colloidal liquids.- Disorder-to-order phase transitions in concentrated colloidal dispersions.- Polymer dynamics.- Video microscopy of charge-stabilized colloidal suspensions.- Structure and thermodynamics of charged colloids.- A study of polymer-colloid interaction by light scattering.- Kinetics of phase transitions in two dimensional systems with competing interactions.- Interpretation of dynamical properties of polymeric cluster solutions.- On the difference between weakly structured mixtures and microemulsions.- Microemulsions: an ensemble of fluctuating interfaces.- Lattice models of amphiphilic assembly.- Low interfacial tensions in microemulsion systems.- Fluid membranes in the water/NaCl - AOT system: a study combining small-angle neutron scattering, electron microscopy and NMR self diffusion.- Shape and size fluctuation of microemulsion droplets.- Experimental and theoretical studies of critical phenomena in solutions of supramolecular aggregates: Micelles and microemulsions.- Experimental and theoretical studies of dense percolating microemulsions.- Structural relaxation in dense microemulsions.- Structural evolution and transition of a three component dense microemulsion system.- Self-assembly and self-organization in micellar liquid crystals.- Transient and static SANS and optical birefringence by alignment of micelles in a shear flow and in electric and magnetic fields.- Rheology of viscoelastic micellar solutions.- Computer simulation of micelles in aqueous solution.- Computer simulations of surfactants at a liquid/liquid interface.- Small angle neutron scattering from systems of interacting particles. Modelling high density micellar fluids.- Static and dynamic electric birefringence in model colloidal dispersions of intrinsically anisotropic particles.- Phase behavior of aqueous mixtures of anionic and cationic surfactants along a dilution path.- Composition fluctuations and phase diagrams for ternary mixtures.- Synchrotron X-ray and cold neutron studies of amphiphilic monolayer structures.- The structure of surfactant monolayers determined by the neutron reflection technique.- to small angle neutron scattering applied to colloidal science.- Theory of scattering from bicontinuous structures.- Magnetism of thin film multilayers: an analogue of interacting platelets.- High resolution small angle X-ray scattering of colloids.- Principles and applications of diffusing-wave spectroscopy.- Colloidal crystals made of anisotropic spherical particles: a quasielastic light scattering study.- Colloidal aggregation in the intermediate regimes.- Dynamic structure factor of strongly interacting charged colloids measured without multiple scattering errors.- Broad distribution of relaxation times in dense homogeneous diblock copolymers.- Interaction of colloidal particles with critical liquid mixtures.- The study of binary colloidal mixtures by neutron scattering.- Percolation phenomenon in microemulsions: the temperature effect.- Static electrical conductivity at the droplet-lamella phase transition of a water-in-oil microemulsion.- Bulk and interfacial properties of amphiphilic systems: a Ginzburg-Landau approach.- Dynamic light scattering by aqueous solutions of rod-like FD-virus particles.- On the universal nature of the nematic-to-isotropic transition in solutions of discotic micelles.- The evolution of a scattering peak in a semidilute three component microemulsion.- Effect of formamide on microemulsions.- Author index.