Self-Assembled, Soft, and Smart

The concept of so-called 'bottom-up' method has been parallel with its counterpart 'top-down' one for years. In term of controllability the latter is somewhat superior; we have already got the devices and theories needed to control the nano-patterns thus formed. But when it comes to self-assembly we can only utilize or combine a limited number of known procedures, and explain them with classic surface and interface thermodynamics, which are themselves most suitable for equilibrium state problems. This unfit and unprepared theoretical basis has hindered the development of the 'bottom-up' method in fabricating materials with unique functions.

This is only the situation within the circle of chemists, though, especially before P. G. de Gennes, laureate of the Nobel Prize in physics, 1991, put forward the term 'soft matter' as the title of his Nobel lecture. Soft matter includes everything that characterizes between solid and fluid, and that generally responses largely to small stimuli (where the word 'soft' comes from).

Among the members of soft matter we can find many interfacial phenomena and self-assembled structures: droplet, bubble, polymer solution, gel, etc. Polymer, in particular, is unique as a kind of material with its time-dependent mechanic properties, but classical in terms of theoretical model for the theory or physics of soft matter. Its chain-like repeating structure establishes a typical fractal model, based on which the mathematic description of colloidal assembly could be developed.

One of the pioneers in this field is T. A. Witten, who started to pay attention to the mathematical treatment to soft matter in early 1970s and was the founder of the model of diffusion-limited aggregation (the Witton's model, legendary paper Phys. Rev. Lett. 1981, 47, 1400-1403. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.47.1400). He and another physicist, D. Quéré, kindly provided some drafts of their books for a group of Chinese physicists, authors of Introduction to Soft Matter Physics (translated from Chinese title), 2004, in advance of the publication of their own books (Witten T A, Pincus, P A Structured Fluids-Polymers, Colloids and Surfactants. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004; de Gennes P G, Brochard-Wyart F, Quéré D Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena-Drops, Bubbles, Pearls, Waves. New York: Springer-Verlag, 2004). It is an intensive survey of the physical aspects of all known phenomena of soft matter. Besides classical examples such as bubbles, polymer gels and liquid crystals, novel findings in supramolecular self-assembly, microphase separation, electro-/magnetorheological fluids, biomacromolecules, and colloidal particles are also subjected to detailed theoretical analysis.

This book effectively collects all findings in the field of soft matter from the most significant physics and physical chemistry journals (tons of Phys. Rev. Lett., Phys. Rev. E, J. Chem. Phys., or Faraday Trans.) in a systematic way, and a low price (RMB 35.00). Although the maths involved is as terribly complex as the things (soft matter) it intends to describe, it is worth dwelling on. Whenever controllability is necessary, physics or maths is needed because they correlate structures and functions, the cause and the result. The time is near when engineers cross their hands and read their RSS subscription of the day during work hour - 'self-assembly kettles' always give and only give the right products!