This book addresses new challenges in soft matter and colloids. It presents timely reports on colloidal self-assembly, soft matters from liquid crystals, nanoparticles in liquid crystals, hydrocolloids, hybrid nanosystems, nanosuspensions, and dispersion of nanoparticles in different media, soft matter processing and modern experiments related with soft matters.

Dynamic soft materials that have the ability to expand and contract, change stiffness, self-heal or dissolve in response to environmental changes, are of great interest in applications ranging from biosensing and drug delivery to soft robotics and tissue engineering. This book covers the state-of-the-art and current trends in the very active and exciting field of bioinspired soft matter, its fundamentals and comprehension from the structural-property point of view, as well as materials and cutting-edge technologies that enable their design, fabrication, advanced characterization and underpin their biomedical applications. The book contents are supported by illustrated examples, schemes, and figures, offering a comprehensive and thorough overview of key aspects of soft matter. The book will provide a trusted resource for undergraduate and graduate students and will extensively benefit researchers and professionals working across the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, polymer chemistry, materials science and engineering, nanosciences, nanotechnologies, nanomedicine, biomedical engineering and medical sciences.

Authored by world-leading physicists, this introductory textbook explores the basic principles of polymers, colloids, liquid crystals, wetting, and foams. It is a practical ‘toolbox’ for readers to acquire basic knowledge in the field and facilitate further reading and advanced courses. Undergraduate students in physics, biology, and the medical sciences will learn the basics of soft matter physics, in addition to scaling approaches in the spirit of the Nobel prize laureate in physics in 1991, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, the inventor of soft matter physics and close collaborator to author Françoise Brochard-Wyart. Features: Accessible and compact approach Contains exercises to enhance understanding All chapters are followed by a short 1-2 page "insert chapter" which serve as illustrations with concrete examples from everyday life (e.g. the Paris Metro, a zebrafish, a gecko, duck feathers etc.)

In daily life, we are accustomed to working with length scales of feet or meters, but the building blocks from which our bodies are constructed are many orders of magnitude smaller. The technologies that are being developed to intervene at these minute scales have the potential to improve human health and significantly enrich our lives. Revolutionary micro/nano technology platforms have led to dramatic advances in sample preparation, analysis and cell culture. From the 1990s through to the very beginning of the twenty-first century, the focus was on the development of manufacturing technologies. Through elegant design and sophisticated fabrication, the micro- to nano-scale manipulation of fluids and particles has become routine. Since then, it has become possible to control molecular interactions at device surfaces, and optical manipulation, imaging and sensing techniques can also be incorporated. Micro/nano technology platforms are already being used to study and direct biological processes at the cellular and sub-cellular level, and to detect disease with greater sensitivity and specificity. The challenges and excitement in the near future will be in engineering these sophisticated, multifunctional devices to seamlessly interface with complex biological systems. Providing a clear guide that moves from molecules through devices to systems, this book reviews fundamental aspects of microfluidic devices, including fabrication, surface property control, pressure-driven and electrokinetic flow, and functions such as fluid mixing, particle sorting and molecular separations. The integration of optical and plasmonic imaging, optoelectronic tweezers for single particle manipulation, and optical and electrical signal transduction methods for biosensing are shown to provide extraordinary capabilities for bioanalytical and biomedical applications. These represent key areas of research that will lead to the next generation of micro/nano-based systems. Anyone working in this fast-changing field will benefit from this comprehensive review of the latest thinking, while researchers will find much to inspire and direct their work.

Science and technology nanomagnetic fluids. Materials aspects of Ferrofluids. Magnetic fluid-based devices. Low-temperature physics of Ferrofluids. Self-assembly of ferrofluids.

This book highlights some of the latest advances in nanotechnology and nanomaterials from leading researchers in Ukraine, Europe and beyond. It features contributions presented at the 8th International Science and Practice Conference Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials (NANO2020), which was held on August 25–28, 2021 at Lviv Polytechnic National University, and was jointly organized by the Institute of Physics, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Lviv Polytechnic National University, University of Tartu (Estonia), University of Turin (Italy), Pierre and Marie Curie University (France), European Profiles S.A. (Greece), Representation of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, University of Angers (France), Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (Germany). Internationally recognized experts from a wide range of universities and research institutions share their knowledge and key findings on material properties, behavior, and synthesis. This book’s companion volume also addresses topics such as nano-optics, energy storage, and biomedical applications.

Soft matter (polymers, colloids, surfactants, liquid crystals) are an important class of materials for modern and future technologies. They are complex materials that behave neither like a fluid nor a solid. This book describes the characteristics of such materials and how we can understand such characteristics in the language of physics.