Short description:

Kinetics, Transport, and Structure in Hard and Soft Materials discusses the connection between the mechanisms of transport of atomic, or molecular entities that occur in a diverse range of materials, and structure. The text is divided into four parts. Part I discusses the fundamentals of diffusional transport (Tools), establishing the foundation for the discussions in Parts II and III on the mechanisms of transport in crystalline materials and in structurally disordered materials. Part IV analyzes phenomena such as spinodal decomposition, Mullins-Sekerka instabilities, and other types of instabilities that lead to morphological evolution facilitated by long-range collective motions of structural entities.

Long description:

Kinetics, Transport, and Structure in Hard and Soft Materials is the only single reference that discusses the connection between structure and mechanisms of atomic or molecular transport in different classes of materials, from metals and semiconductors to network glasses, polymers and supercooled liquids.

Divided into four parts, Part I begins with a discussion the fundamentals of transport, wherein transport properties of a system of non-interacting particles are calculated and the phenomenon of Brownian motion introduced.  The phenomenology of diffusion is also discussed wherein Fick?s laws are introduced and solved for a range of practical cases involving mass transport.  Elementary Statistical mechanics, involving Partition functions, probability distribution functions and correlation functions, is discussed to lay the foundation for the subsequent discussion of mechanisms of transport in different materials.  Parts II and III focus on mechanisms of transport in crystalline materials and in structurally disordered materials. Chapters explain how the mechanism of diffusional transport of an atom or molecule is intimately connected to the spatial organization of neighboring structural elements and to its interactions with them.  The book reviews factors that control temperature dependent long-range dynamics of glass-forming systems.  Diffusion and viscoelasticity of polymer melts, transport (viscous flow and ionic diffusion) in inorganic network glasses, and dynamic heterogeneity in super cooled liquids are described. Part IV analyzes the development of instabilities, such as spinodal decomposition and Mullins-Sekerka instabilities, which lead to the morphological evolution of materials.

Kinetics, Transport, and Structure in Hard and Soft Materials emphasizes interdisciplinary nature of transport in materials, presenting its material in a user-friendly format for students from any discipline with a foundation in elementary

Table of Contents:

TOOLS: ELEMENTS OF EQUILIBRIUM AND TRANSPORT IN SIMPLE SYSTEMS: Elements of Diffusional Transport, Brownian Motion; MECHANISMS OF DIFFUSIONAL TRANSPORT IN CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS: Elements of Atomic Diffusion on Crystalline Lattice, Diffusion in Ionic Crystals: Alkali Halides, Diffusion in Semiconductors; MECHANISMS OF DIFFUSIONAL TRANSPORT IN SYSTEMS THAT LACK LONG-RANGE ORDER: Transport and Viscoelasticity of Large Macromolecules, Transport processes in inorganic network glasses, Comments on Heterogeneous Dynamics in the Disordered state; PATTERN FORMATION AND INSTABILITIES: Phase separation in binary mixtures: spinodal decomposition and nucleation, Interdiffusion: Diffusion in chemical potential gradients, Growth: moving interfaces and instabilities in bulk materials, Comments on Instabilities and Pattern Formation in Condensed Matter