Topics at a Glance:

1. Surface Tension, Adhesion and capillarity:

Effects of confinement and finite size;
Concepts of surface and interfacial energies and tensions;
Apolar (van der Waals) and polar (acid-base) components of interfacial tensions
Young-Laplace equation of capillarity; examples of equilibrium surfaces; multiplicity, etc.;
Stability of equilibrium solutions; Contact angle and Young's equation;
Determination of apolar (van der Waals) and acid-base components of surface/interfacial tensions;
Free energies of adhesion
Kinetics of capillary flows

2. Intermolecular and interfacial forces in organic, polymeric, biological and aqueous systems:

van der Waals,
Electrostatic double layer,
Acid-base interactions including hydrophobic attraction and hydration pressure.

3. Mesoscale & Surface thermodynamics:

Gibbs treatment of interfaces; concept of excess concentration; variation of interfacial tensions with surfactant concentration

4. Mesoscale phenomena in soft matter and applications:

Adhesion, wetting, nucleation, flotation, patterning of soft material by self – organization and other techniques

5. Stability of colloidal dispersions:

DLVO and DLVO like theories and kinetics of coagulation plus general principles of diffusion in a potential field/Brownian movement