Conclusion

Our aim here is to present some of the basics of a new discipline, or rather one that has only recently come into its own. The principles of surface thermodynamics (Gibbs', Laplace's and Kelvin's relations) have not been recalled, in order to better highlight the specificities of the physical chemistry of soft matter. Furthermore, we didn't address the interface behavior of soft objects at all (how does a micelle solution spread on a solid?). Many physico-chemical systems encountered in everyday life include several, if not all, of the objects described in the previous paragraph. One example is mayonnaise, a mixture of salt water, oil, surfactant (egg yolk, which is a phospholipid) and sometimes polymer (polysaccharide) to increase viscosity. The art of a formulator then consists in dosing the different components; to do this, he uses his knowledge of the different actions that the components...