Electrostatic Effects In Soft Matter And Biophysics

Soft Condensed Matter commonly deals with materials that are mechanically soft and, more importantly, particularly prone to thermal fluctuation effects. Charged soft matter systems are especially interesting: they can be manufactured artificially as polyelectrolytes to serve as superabsorbers in dypers, as flocculation and retention agents, as thickeners and gelling agents, and as oil-recovery process aids. They are also abundant in living organisms, mostly performing important structural (e.g. membranes) and functional (e.g. DNA) tasks. The book describes the many areas in soft matter and biophysics where electrostatic interactions play an important role. It offers in-depth coverage of recent theoretical approaches, advances in computer simulation, and novel experimental techniques. Readership: Advanced undergraduate level in physics, physical chemistry, and theoretical biochemistry.

Recently, there has been a surge of activity to elucidate the behavior of highly charged soft matter and Coulomb fluids in general. Such systems are ubiquitous, especially in biological matter where the length scale and the strength of the interaction between highly charged biomolecules are governed by strong electrostatic effects. Several interest

Deals with the scientific impact of the work of Nobel Laureate, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. This book covers the important fields for which de Gennes was renowned: solid state, macroscopic random media and percolation, supersolids, liquid crystals, polymers, adhesion and friction, and biophysics.

This 2-volume set includes extensive discussions of scattering techniques (light, neutron and X-ray) and related fluctuation and grating techniques that are at the forefront of this field. Most of the scattering techniques are Fourier space techniques. Recent advances have seen the development of powerful direct imaging methods such as atomic force microscopy and scanning probe microscopy. In addition, techniques that can be used to manipulate soft matter on the nanometer scale are also in rapid development. These include the scanning probe microscopy technique mentioned above as well as optical and magnetic tweezers.

Recently, there has been a surge of activity to elucidate the behavior of highly charged soft matter and Coulomb fluids in general. Such systems are ubiquitous, especially in biological matter where the length scale and the strength of the interaction between highly charged biomolecules are governed by strong electrostatic effects. Several interesting limits have been discovered in the parameter space of highly charged many-particle Coulomb matter where analytical progress is possible and completely novel and unexpected results have been obtained. One of the challenges in highly charged matter is to correctly describe systems with finite coupling strength in the transition regime between weak and strong couplings. After studying the fluctuations of both, several theories have been developed that describe this experimentally highly relevant regime. At the same time, computer simulation algorithms and computing power have advanced to the level where all-ion simulations, including many-body and polarization effects, are possible; the new theories thus can be subjected to numerical confirmation. Another important question is the effect of the structural disorder on electrostatic interactions. It has recently been demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, that charge disorder can impose long-range interaction between charged or even uncharged surfaces. These interactions might become very significant in biological processes. Filling a void in the literature, this volume cross-pollinates different theoretical and simulation approaches with new experiments and ties together the low temperature, high coupling constant, and disorder parameters in a unified description of the electrostatic interactions, which largely determine the stability and conformations of most important biological macromolecules. With striking graphical illustrations, the book presents a unified view of the current advances in the field of Coulomb (bio)colloidal systems, building on previous literature that summarized the field over 20 years ago. Leading scientists in the field offer a detailed introduction to different modern methods in statistical physics of Coulomb systems. They detail various approaches to elucidate the behavior of strongly charged soft matter. They also provide experimental and theoretical descriptions of disorder effects in Coulomb systems, which have not been discussed in any other book.

Soft matter is a concept which covers polymers, liquid crystals, colloids, amphiphilic molecules, glasses, granular and biological materials. One of the fundamental characteristic features of soft matter is that it exhibits various mesoscopic structures originating from a large number of internal degrees of freedom of each molecule. Due to such intermediate structures, soft matter can easily be brought into non-equilibrium states and cause non-linear responses by imposing external fields such as an electric field, a mechanical stress or a shear flow. Volume 4 of the series in Soft Condensed Matter focuses on the non-linear and non-equilibrium properties of soft matter. It contains a collection of review articles on the current topics of non-equilibrium soft matter physics written by leading experts in the field. The topics dealt with in this volume includes rheology of polymers and liquid crystals, dynamical properties of Langmuir monolayers at the air/water interface, hydrodynamics of membranes and twisted filaments as well as dynamics of deformable self-propelled particles and migration of biological cells. This book serves both as an introduction to students as well as a useful reference to researchers.

This book provides new clues for understanding electrostatic charging in solids and liquids, resulting from the surge of research in this active area of science that is taking place since the 1990's but is still largely unknown to most researchers, lecturers and engineers. Written by a leading researcher in this field, this book describes the formation and properties of the Earth capacitor, the production of environmental electricity and its effect on natural and anthropic systems and examines many situations in which water may play a decisive role in electrostatic behavior. The authors present an informed critique of the long-held assumption that pure substances should be electroneutral. In this regard, the authors show that charge partition and accumulation is expected considering the electrochemical potential under non-zero electrostatic potential, which prevails at Earth surface. This book provides conceptual tools to guide the reader through the complexities and consequences of electrostatic phenomena while covering exciting current topics such as energy scavenging from the environment, electrostatic based green production, energy-saving processes, electrochemistry at the solid-gas interface, therapeutic electrostatic treatments, applications in sanitation and pest control and control of atmospheric electricity and its use in climate engineering.

This handbook provides a unique overview of lipid membrane fundamentals and applications. The fascinating world of lipids that harbor and govern so many biological functionalities are discussed within the context of membrane structures, interactions, and shape evolution. Beyond the fundamentals in lipid science, this handbook focuses on how scientists are building bioinspired biomimetic systems for applications in medicine, cosmetics, and nanotechnology. Key Features: Includes experimental and theoretical overviews on the role of lipids, with or without associated biomolecules, as structural components imparting distinct membrane shapes and intermembrane interactions Covers the mechanisms of lipid-membrane curvature, by peptide and protein binding, and the roles of signalling lipids and the cytoskeleton in plasma membrane shape evolution Covers advanced X-ray and force measurement techniques Discusses applications in biomedicine, cosmetics, and nanotechnology, including lipid vectors in nucleic acid, drug delivery in dermal applications, and lipid-based sensors and artificial biointerfaces Covers artificial membranes from block copolymers, synthetic copolypeptides, and recombinant proteins Includes an exciting section that explores the role of lipids in the origin of life in hydrothermal conditions This book is a highly informative companion for professionals in biophysics, biochemistry, physical chemistry, and material and pharmaceutical sciences and bioengineering.