Soft matter

Soft matter is intermediate between fluids and rigid solids. I ran.slational motion is largely absent, but molecular mobility is still high, yet often anisotropic or not fast enough to 

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Due to the complexity of macromolecular materials computer simulations become increasingly important in polymer science or, better, in what is now called soft matter physics. There are several reviews available which deal with a great variety of problems and techniques [1-7]. It is the purpose of the present introduction to give a very brief overview of the different approaches, mainly for dense systems, and a few apphcations. To do so we will confine ourselves to techniques describing polymers on a molecular level. By molecular level we mean both the microscopic and the mesoscopic level of description. In the case of the microscopic description (all)... 

Deming TJ (2005) Polypeptide hydrogels via a unique assembly mechanism. Soft Matter 1 28-35... 

Adams DJ, Mullen LM, Berta M, Chen L, Frith WJ (2010) Soft Matter 6 1971... 

Kumaraswamy P, Lakshmanan R, Sethuraman S, Krishnan UM (2011) Soft Matter 7 2744... 

Charati MB, Ifkovits JL, Burdick JA, Linhardt JG, Kiick KL (2009) Soft Matter 5 3412-3416... 

Checot F, Lecommandoux S, Klok HA, Gnanou Y (2003) Eur Phys J E Soft Matter 10 25... 

Kishimura A, Liamsuwan S, Matsuda H, Dong W, Osada K, Yamasaki Y, Kataoka K (2009) Soft Matter 5 529... 

Adams DJ, Topham PD (2010) Peptide conjugate hydrogelators. Soft Matter 6 3707-3721... 

Grzybowski BA, Wilmer CE, Kim J et al (2009) Self-assembly from crystals to cells. Soft Matter 5 1110-1128... 

Yan CQ, Altunbas A, Yucel T et al (2010) Injectable sobd hydrogel mechanism of shearthinning and immediate recovery of injectable beta-hairpin peptide hydrogels. Soft Matter 6 5143-5156... 

Gong, J. P. (2006) Friction and lubrication of hydrogels—its richness and complexity. Soft Matter, 2, 544-552. 

J. P. (2008) Effect of substrate adhesion and hydrophobidty on hydrogel friction. Soft Matter, 4, 1033-1040. 

Nakanishi, H., Namikawa, N., Norisuye, T. and Tran-Cong-Miyata, Q. (2006) Autocatalytic phase separation and graded co-continuous morphology generated by photocuring. Soft Matter, 2, 149—156. 

M. Karttunen, I. Vattulainen, and A. Lukkarinen (eds.), Novel Methods in Soft Matter Simulations, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2004. 

Mulet, X. and Drummond, C.J. (2011) Anandamide andanalogous endocannabinoids a lipid self-assembly study. Soft Matter, 7, 5319—5328. 

John, G. and Vemula, P.K. (2006) Design and development of soft nanomaterials from biobased amphiphiles. Soft Matter, 2, 909-914. 

Fujima, T., Frusawa, H., Minamikawa, H., Ito, K. and Shimizu, T. (2006) Elastic precursor of the transformation from glycolipid nanotube to vesicle, Journal of Physics Condensed Matter, 18, 3089—3096. Kameta, N., Minamikawa, H., Masuda, M., Mizuno, G. and Shimizu, T. (2008) Controllable biomolecule release from self-assembled organic nanotubes with asymmetric surfaces pH and temperature dependence. Soft Matter, 4 (8), 1681-1688. Weiss R.G. and Terech P. (eds.) (2006) Molecular Gels Materials with Self-Assembled Fibrillar Networks, Springer, Dordrecht. 

Carretti, E., Deia, L. and Weiss, R.G. (2005) Soft matter and art conservation. Rheoreversible gels and beyond. Soft Matter, 1, 17—22. 

G. Beaucage, Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft. Matter Phys., 70 (2004) 031401. 

The application of X-ray scattering for the study of soft matter has a long tradition. By shining X-rays on a piece of material, representative structure information is collected in a scattering pattern. Moreover, during the last three decades X-ray scattering has gained new attractivity, for it developed from a static to a dynamic method. 

A model-free method for the analysis of lattice distortions is readily established from Eq. (8.13). It is an extension of Stokes [27] method for deconvolution and has been devised by Warren and Averbach [28,29] (textbooks Warren [97], Sect. 13.4 Guinier [6], p. 241-249 Alexander [7], Chap. 7). For the application to common soft matter it is of moderate value only, because the required accuracy of beam profile measurement is rarely achievable. On the other hand, for application to advanced polymeric materials its applicability has been demonstrated [109], although the classical graphical method suffers from extensive approximations that reduce its value for the typical polymer with small crystal sizes and stronger distortions. 

See p. 118, Fig. 8.8 and the corresponding comparison of soft matter and metals Subtract 90% of the intensity minimum. 

The first-zero method starts from the ideal lattice and Eq. (8.67). For the purpose of evaluation of scattering curves from polydisperse soft matter the ideal long period, L, is replaced by Lapp, i.e. the validity of j (v (1 -v )Lapp)= Ois assumed. Because of the fact that the zero of a function is determined, not even a normalization of yt (x) is required [162], Figure 8.22 displays the model data of Fig. 8.21 after the method-inherent renormalization x —> x/Lapp. Comparison with Fig. 8.21 shows that now... 

The isotropic chord length distribution (CLD) is of limited practical value if soft matter with only short-range order is studied. Nevertheless, the related notions have been fruitful for the development of new methods for topology visualization from SAXS data. 

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