Statistical Mechanics for Chemistry and Materials Science

This book covers the broad subject of equilibrium statistical mechanics along with many advanced and modern topics such as nucleation, spinodal decomposition, inherent structures of liquids and liquid crystals. Unlike other books on the market, this comprehensive text not only deals with the primary fundamental ideas of statistical mechanics but also covers contemporary topics in this broad and rapidly developing area of chemistry and materials science.

Author Biography: Biman Bagchi is Professor at Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit, Indian Institute of Science.

1. Preliminaries 2. Probability and Statistics 3. Fundamental Concepts and Postulates of Statistical Mechanics 4. Liouville Theorem and Liouville Equation 5. Ensembles and Partition Functions: From Postulates to Formulation 6. Fluctuations and Response Functions 7. Ideal Monatomic Gas: Microscopic Expression of Translational Entropy 8. Ideal Gas of Diatomic Molecules: Microscopic Expressions for Rotational and Vibrational Entropy and Specific Heat 9. Quantum Statistics and Bose-Einstein Condensation 10. Lattice Models Including Ising 11. Distribution Function Theory of Liquids 12. Hard Core Interactions 13. Perturbation Theories of Liquids 14. Cell Theory and the Concept of Free Volume and Communal Entropy in Liquids 15. Scaled Particle Theory and Calculation of Chemical Potential 16. Phase Transition: Elementary Concepts 17. Landau Theory of Phase Transitions: Order Parameter Expansion and Free Energy Diagrams 18. Critical Phenomena: Universality, Scaling, and Renormalization Group 19. Cluster Expansion and Mayer's Theory of Condensation 20. Yang-Lee Theory of Phase Transition 21. Classical Density Functional Theory 22. Surface Phenomena and Surface Tension 23. Theory of Melting and Freezing and Glass Transition 24. Nucleation, Ostwald Step Rule, and Nanomaterial Synthesis 25. Spinodal Decomposition and Pattern Formation: Evolution of Structure through Dynamics 26. Binary Mixtures: Towards Understanding Non-Ideality and Osmotic Pressure 27. Inherent Structures and Energy Landscape View of Liquids and Glasses 28. Polymers in Solutions and Polymer Collapse 29. Computer Simulation Methods in Statistical Mechanics 30. Computational Methods for Free Energy Calculation and Study of Rare Events