* Physical chemists will find this book comprehensive. Topical reviews on all aspects of colloidal ordering and related phase transitions will be covered. It provides a good blend of experimental and theoretical investigations. * Useful to materials scientists and chemical engineers, the book includes a discussion of stability, important from the point of view of applications of colloidal crystals. * Physicists will be interested in the book, because it highlights the controversy over effective interparticle interaction in charged colloids.

The first five articles in this issue emphasize equilibrium phases and structures. The hard sphere properties of sterically stabilized particle suspensions are examined in the article by van Megan, Pusey and Bartlett, a colloidal compound is discussed by Hachisu and attractive interactions are shown to produce a full complement of phase transitions including a liquid/gas transition by Emmett and Vincent. Recent theoretical interest in the nature of melting in two dimensions has led to the investigation of the melting transition in colloidal systems where the particles are constrained to a single layer. Murray, Van Winkle and Wenk present experimental results supporting the view that two dimensional melting is mediated by two second order transitions, while Tang, Armstrong, Mockler and O'Sullivan present results suggesting a first order process in a similar colloidal monolayer.

This monograph represents an extension of the author''s original PhD thesis and includes a more thorough discussion on the concepts and mathematics behind his research works on the foam model, as applied to studying issues of phase stability and elasticity for various non-closed packed structures found in fuzzy and colloidal crystals, as well as on a renormalization-group analysis regarding the critical behavior of loop polymers upon which topological constraints are imposed. The common thread behind these two research works is their demonstration of the importance and effectiveness of utilizing geometrical and topological concepts for modeling and understanding soft systems undergoing phase transitions.

This monograph represents an extension of the author's original PhD thesis and includes a more thorough discussion on the concepts and mathematics behind his research works on the foam model, as applied to studying issues of phase stability and elasticity for various non-closed packed structures found in fuzzy and colloidal crystals, as well as on a renormalization-group analysis regarding the critical behavior of loop polymers upon which topological constraints are imposed. The common thread behind these two research works is their demonstration of the importance and effectiveness of utilizing geometrical and topological concepts for modeling and understanding soft systems undergoing phase transitions.

Volume IV (2005) covers preparation, characterization of colloids, stability and interaction between pairs of particles, and in concentrated systems, their rheology and dynamics. This volume contains two chapters written, or co-authored by J. Lyklema and edited contributions by A.P.Philipse, H.P. van Leeuwen, M. Minor, A. Vrij, R.Tuinier and T. van Vliet. The volume is logically followed by Vol V, but is equally valuable as a stand alone reference.* Combined with part V, this volume completes the prestigious series Fundamentals of Interface and Colloid Science* Together with volume V this book provides a general physical chemical background to colloid science* Covers all aspects of particle colloids

This book is designed to critically review experimental findings on ionic polymers and colloidal particles and to prove a theoretical framework based on the Poisson-Boltzmann approach. Structure formation in ionic polymer solutions has attracted attention since the days of H. Staudinger and J. D. Bernal. An independent study on ionic colloidal dispersions with microscopy provided a compelling evidence of structure formation. Recent technical developments have made it possible to accumulate relevant information for both ionic polymers and colloidal particles in dilute systems. The outstanding phenomenon experimentally found is microscopic inhomogeneity in the solute distribution in macroscopically homogeneous systems.To account for the observation, the present authors have invoked the existence of the counterion-mediated attraction between similarly charged solute species, in addition to the widely accepted electrostatic repulsion.