The course is an introduction to the physics of soft materials, complex fluids, and biological systems, ranging from simple colloidal suspensions to polymer, spontaneous surfactant aggregates, gels, proteins and nucleic acids. Besides providing a bottom-up presentation of the properties of complex fluids, based on their microscopic structure and interactions, the course aims at highlighting the important practical applications of these materials in the general market and for nanotechnologies. In particular, we review the most basic distinctions and similarities among the rheological (or flow) properties of various complex fluids, highlighting how the microstructure and microstructural forces control their rheological properties.

General introduction to disperse systems and supramolecular systems. Review of statistical thermodynamics. Dilute suspensions and osmotic pressure. Effective forces between dispersed particles: excluded volume, van der Waals and electrostatic interactions, depletion forces. Brownian motion.

Colloidal dispersions. Stability of a suspension of colloidal particles and colloidal aggregation.  Colloidal crystals, glasses and hydro/aerogels. Patchy particles. Active colloids. Applications of nanofluids in nanotechnology.

Polymer solutions. Dilute solutions and polymer coils. Semi-dilute solutions, polymer meshes, and Flory-Huggins theory. Polymer gels. Polyelectrolytes.

Surfactant solutions and Emulsions. Classes of surfactant and their practical applications. Micellization and basic principles of detergency. Self-assembly of surfactant molecules: micelles, “living polymers”, inverted micelles, and vesicles. Emulsion stability. Micro and Nano Emulsion. Pickering Emulsions.

Biological fluids. Protein structure. Enzymes and biocatalysis. Transport, structural, and membrane proteins. Protein crystallization. Molecular machines.

Rheological Measurements and Properties of complex fluids. Shear Thinning and Shear Thickening in hard sphere systems. Rheology of particulate gels. Rheology of Dilute Polymer Solutions. Rheology of entanlged polymers. Rheology of glassy liquids. Rheology of surfactants: spherical vs worm-like micelles.

Experimental methods to investigate soft and biological materials. Light Scattering, correlation spectroscopy, video microscopy, and microfluidics techniques (with lab presentations). Macro and micro-rheology.

           All these  arguments   are treated in the  lectures notes  accessible on the Beep platform to the students participating to the course, wherefrom  several good review papers on soft and biological matter can also  be freely downloaded.

The course is organized as a series standard classroom lectures, in which the main theoretical arguments are developed, supported by the discussion of specific applications, to be regarded as exercitations. The final test consists of a traditional oral exam.

This is not a textbook, but rather a popoular science book written in a plain language and accessible to a large audience. Yet, it contains most of the physics we need

This book presents a unified view of the physicochemical origin of the mechanical behaviour of soft materials.The mathematical formalism is reduced in order to focus on physical explanations.

A bit technical, but a good starting point for appreciating the physics and dynamics of complex fluids.

A slim and accessible introduction, although at a level which is not as advanced as the one of this course

A very good book, at a level a bit more advanced than the one of this course, and with a more theoretical lingo

One of the best introduction to biophysics