Soft Matter Physics – Test Exam

Time: 180 min

Important Note: Please write your name and your student number on every sheet before you
start answering a question. Please use a new page for each question. Different questions on the
front and back page of a sheet are okay. If given, please use the symbols used in the question.

1. Comprehension Questions (20 Points)

(a) State the first law of thermodynamics. (1 P)
(b) Explain which of the following systems has a larger amount of entropy: a glass of liquid water
or a glass of crushed ice of the same amount of water. (2 P)
(c) State the equipartition theorem. According to this theorem, determine the average kinetic
energy of a monoatomic ideal gas composed of N gas atoms in three dimensions. (2 P)
(d) Sketch the phase diagram of a mixture of two liquids whose free energy is described by the
regular solution model. Indicate the stable, metastable and unstable regions as well as the
spinodal line, the coexisting curve and the critical point. (4 P)
(e) Describe the diffusive double layer of a charged solid plate submerged into an electrolyte.
(1 P)
(f) Name and describe one of the forces which are generally collected under the term van der
Waals forces between molecules. (2 P)
(g) Shortly explain the statement of a fluctuation–dissipation theorem. Name and describe one
example. (3 P)
(h) Explain what the Reynolds number states and name a real-world example when this dimen-
sionless quantity is very small. Justify the example by estimating the relevant physical scales.
(3 P)
(i) Shortly describe the physical principle that is employed in light scattering in dilute polymer
solutions and name a characteristic quantity for the physics of a polymer coil that can be
determined by measuring the light scattering at small scattering angles. (2 P)

2. First Law of Thermodynamics (2 Points)

A certain amount of a gas absorbs 1.67 MJ of heat while it does a work of 800 J. Calculate the
change of the internal energy.

3. Introduction to Statistical Physics (4 Points)

A four-residue protein can take on the four different conformations shown in Figure 1. Three
conformations are open and have the energy  ( > 0), and one is compact and has the energy
zero.
(a) At temperature T , calculate the probability po of finding the molecule in an open conforma-
tion. Calculate the probability pc that it is compact.
(b) Determine what happens to the probability pc calculated in (a) in the limit of very large and
very low temperatures.

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 (c) Calculate the average energy of the molecule at temperature T .

Figure 1: Toy model of protein folding showing four configurations.

4. Phase Transitions (8 Points)

Droplets of molten silver with a radius of 100 µm are observed under a microscope as the temper-
ature is lowered below the melting point. A large number of droplets solidify at 227 K below the
melting point. Silver has an atomic mass of 108 u, a density of 10.49 g · cm−3 , the melting point
is 1234 K and the latent heat of fusion is 1.1 · 109 J · m−3 .
(a) Assuming that these droplets are solidifying by homogeneous nucleation, calculate the solid/
liquid interfacial energy of silver. You may assume that a droplet solidifies when it contains
on average one nucleus of the critical size, and that during the experimental time scale each
atom makes 5 · 1013 attempts to form a nucleus. The probability to form a nucleus with
critical radius through thermal fluctuations is given by
∆Gnucl. (r∗ , T )
 
p = exp − ,
kB T
where r∗ is the critical nucleus radius and ∆Gnucl. (r∗ , T ) is the free energy of activation.
∆Gnucl. (r∗ , T ) has two contributions: the surface tension of a nucleus and the temperature
dependent difference in Gibb’s enthalpy on going from liquid to solid bulk.
(b) Computer simulations suggest that the interface between a crystal and its melt, rather than
being atomically sharp, is between 5 and 10 atomic spacings broad. Calculate the classical
critical nucleus size using your results form (a) and compare this value to the simulation
results.

5. Electrostatic Interactions in Media (2 Points)

Calculate the Debye length of a 1 mM CaCl2 electrolyte solution.

6. van der Waals Interactions (4 Points)

Calculate the interaction energy between a single point-like particle and a flat planar surface (with a
constant number density of particles ρ). The pair potential between two single particles is assumed
to be purely attractive and hence of the form w(r) = −C/rn , n > 3.

7. Brownian Motion (3 Points)

For a spherical virus (100 nm in diameter, density of 1020 kg · m−3 ) suspended in water at T =
20 ◦ C calculate
(a) its sedimentation velocity,

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 (b) its diffusion coefficient,
(c) the estimated time the virus takes to diffuse a distance equal to its own diameter.
(Additional data: The viscosity of water is 1.002·10−3 Pa · s and the density of water is 1000 kg · m−3 ).

8. Hydrodynamics (8 Points)
(a) Consider the laminar stationary flow of an incompressible fluid (with density ρ and dynamic
viscosity η both constant) between two infinite coplanar plates of distance h without external
forces. Determine from the dimensionless Navier–Stokes equation
∂v 1
+ (v∇)v = −∇p + ∆v
∂t Re
the velocity profile v1 (x3 ) for the case that one of the plates is moving with constant velocity
u0 relative to the other plate for constant pressure. Here, Re is the Reynolds number.
(b) A mass M is sliding on a thin layer of oil (modeled as a Newtonian fluid) and moving at a
constant velocity V . This mass is connected by a wire to another mass m (see Figure 2). At
time t = 0 the mass m is allowed to fall freely. Assuming that the contact area of mass M
with the oil is A and the thickness of the oil layer is h, determine
• an expression for the viscous force applied on M as a function of the velocity v(t),
• the governing equation for the dynamics of the system,
• and a solution to this equation for v(t).

Figure 2: Body of mass M sliding on an oil film of thickness h with initial velocity V and freely
falling body of mass m.

9. Ideal Polymers (6 Points)

If a constant force f is applied to a freely jointed chain along the z-coordinate, its internal energy
is given by
U = −f · R = −f Rz ,
where R corresponds to the end-to-end vector in z-direction. A typical situation would be a chain
with two oppositely charged ends in a constant electric field applied along the z-axis. Due to the
applied force, the different conformations are no longer equally likely. Their probability distribution
can be expressed by a Boltzmann distribution. The partition function of the elongated chain is
then   N
4πkB T fb
Z(T, f, N ) = sinh ,
fb kB T
where N is the number of individual bond vectors each of length b.
(a) The average end-to-end distance hRi is the negative derivative of the Gibbs free energy with
respect to the force f . Calculate an expression for hRz i = hRi in this situation.

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 (b) Consider an ideal chain with N Kuhn monomers of length b. The chain is carrying a positive
charge +e at one end and a negative charge −e at the other end. Calculate its average
end-to-end distance hRz i at a temperature of T = 25 ◦ C in an electric field E = 105 V · cm−1
acting along the z-axis. The chain has N = 104 Kuhn monomers of length b = 0.6 nm.
Calculate a ratio of hRz i to the maximum end-to-end distance Rmax .

Hint:
• Ignore direct Coulomb interactions between the charges.
ex −e−x
• sinh(x) = 2 .

10. Real Polymers (3 Points)

Consider a linear polymer chain with N = 1000 monomers with bond length b = 3 Å. The size RF
of this polymer due to excluded volume interactions can be calculated via
 (2νF −1)
v
RF = b 3 N νF
b

using Flory theory, here with v = 21.6 Å3 . The Flory coefficient νF is dependent on the spatial
dimension d of the system:  3
d+2 if d ∈ {1, 2, 3}
νF = .
1/2 if d ≥ 4

(a) Calculate by which factor the size of the polymer changes if the polymer is considered in two
and three dimensions.

(b) Explain why excluded volume effects in higher dimensions can be neglected, i.e., νF = 1/2
for d ≥ 4 which is the scaling of an ideal chain.

Constants

Elementary Charge: e ≈ 1.602 · 10−19 C

Electron Mass: me ≈ 9.109 · 10−31 kg
Proton Mass: mp ≈ 1.673 · 10−27 kg
Neutron Mass: mn ≈ 1.675 · 10−27 kg
Planck’s Constant: h ≈ 6.626 · 10−34 J · s
Reduced Planck’s Constant: h̄ = h/2π ≈ 1.054 · 10−34 J · s
Speed of Light: c ≈ 2.998 · 108 m/s
Boltzmann Constant: kB ≈ 1.381 · 10−23 J/K
Conversion of Temperatures: T = 0 ◦C = ˆ 273.15 K
Bohr Radius: a0 ≈ 0.529 · 10−10 m
Rydberg Energy: Ry ≈ 13.6 eV
Compton Wavelength of the Electron: λC ≈ 2.426 · 10−12 m
Bohr Magneton: µB ≈ 9.274 · 10−24 J/T
Nuclear Magneton: µK ≈ 5.051 · 10−27 J/T
Vacuum Permittivity: ε0 ≈ 8.854 · 10−12 A · s/(V · m)
Vacuum Permeability: µ0 ≈ 4π · 10−7 N/A2