Introduction to soft matter and neutron scattering

Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France

^* Corresponding author: julian.oberdisse@umontpellier.fr

Published online: 17 September 2018

Abstract

As an opening lecture to the French-Swedish neutron scattering school held in Uppsala (6^th to 9^th of December 2016), the basic concepts of both soft matter science and neutron scattering are introduced. Typical soft matter systems like self-assembled surfactants in water, microemulsions, (co-)polymers, and colloids are presented. It will be shown that widely different systems have a common underlying physics dominated by the thermal energy, with astonishing consequences on their statistical thermodynamics, and ultimately rheological properties – namely softness. In the second part, the fundamentals of neutron scattering techniques and in particular small-angle neutron scattering as a powerful method to characterize soft matter systems will be outlined.