Structured Fluids: Polymers, Colloids, Surfactants
by Thomas A. Witten, University of Chicago
with Phillip A. Pincus, University of California
ISBN: 0198526881
News
- December 30, 2009, paperback edition coming. A paperback edition of this book is being prepared. It will correct the errata noted below. It is due to appear in 2010. See the Oxford University Press web site for further information.
- June 27, 2005 review in ChemPhysChem 2005, 6, 745 Ð 747 by Katharina Landfester. DOI 10.1002/cphc.200400537 local copy
- November 1, 2004 review in Educational Reviews
Volume 5, Issue 2 p. 27 November 2004
by Philip J. Camp. local copy
- December 20, 2004. Amazon lets you search the text of the book and see sample pages.
- August 13, 2004 Review in Science by Gerard Wong.
- March 1, 2004. Availability Amazon lists the book but announces a 3-5 week wait. Oxford UK has the book now. Oxford USA lists the book in their physical chemistry section, but have not updated their listing since October. Barnes and Noble web site doesn't have it. Look here to search for web merchants who have it.
Table of Contents
About the author
For more information about Tom Witten, try here.
See this page for a description of demonstrations done in the class
Errata
It's inevitable: errors and confusing statements will be discovered. Here are the ones discovered in the first edition. These have been fixed in the 2009 edition. But there are surely others(!)..
p. 26: where did q0 come from?
In the equation at the bottom of the page, I added an extra expression for $q_0$ to make it clear that the expression follows simply from normalization

p. 59: upper-limit goof
- in equation 3.23 |q| was omitted in the upper limit of integration
- two lines below Eq. (3.23)
" It is finite as long as D-3 < 0"
should be
" It is finite for |q| R → ∞ as long as D-3 < 0"
p. 87: What's so obvious?
"The interaction energy and pressure are obvious to the chain length"
should be
"The interaction energy and pressure are oblivious to the chain length"
p. 91 punctuation and spacing
"To characterize the brownian motion further we now ask what controlsthe"
should be
"To characterize the brownian motion further, we now ask what controls the"
p. 92 problem 4.3: How do we know Rh?
"...and bouyant mass Mb of the polymer."
should be
and the bouyant mass Mb of the polymer. You may assume, as will be shown later, that Rh is a fixed fraction of the radius of gyration Rg from Chapter 3.
p. 94: Stokes diffusion benchmark , Feb 8, 2005
"A sphere of radius $R = 6.1 nm diffuses its own radius in 1 microsecond"
should be
"A sphere of radius $R = 11 nm diffuses its own radius in 1 microsecond"
p. 101 spacing
"Careful scatteringmeasurements"
should be
Careful scattering measurements
p. 103: Damping of Jello
...while the polymer network wants to reduce its volume.
should be
while the polymer network wants to increase its volume.
This change has no effect on the calculation, since this depends only on the magnitude of the flow, not its direction.
p 115: mystery c1 ,
...to have a nonzero moment c1
should be
...to have a nonzero moment \mu1
ie. the c should be a greek mu.
p. 117 parenthesis
"(cf. Fig. 2.1,"
should be
(cf. Fig. 2.1)
p. 120 are are
p. 123 φ → 1??
"φ → 1"
should be
φ(z) → φ.
p. 160 punctuation
"...interfacial energy, such flows..."
should be
interfacial energy; such flows
"...it spontaneously spreads, to form..."
should be
it spontaneously spreads to form
p. 183 typo
p. 184 missing word
"... the persistence was found to be..."
should be
the persistence length was found to be
p. 194 Fig. 7.8
"6-10 g/ml"
should be
6-10 g/l
p. 194 interchanged figure labels
p. 194 misplaced "next"
"...the next energy to absorb B is unfavorable."
should be
the energy to absorb the next B is unfavorable
Frequently asked questions
- no frequently asked questions since publication.