Trends in Colloid and Interface Science XV

The 14th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS 2000) was held in September 2000, in Patras, GREECE. Researchers from the academia and the industrial sector met and presented research work divided in nine thematic sections: molecular interactions in thin films, polymer-surfactant interactions, structure and dynamics at interfaces, biocolloids, colloids in pharmaceutical and biological applications, new trends in colloid and interface science techniques, rheology, self assembly of amphiphiles and measurements in concentrated suspensions. Selected contributions from these thematic areas are presented in the present volume and show the up today achievements of the Colloid and Interface Science.

Molecular lnteractions in Thin Films.- Water/oil/water thin films: construction and applications.- Langmuir monolayers from substituted aromatic carboxylic acids.- Metastable water films on hydrophobic silica surfaces.- Low-temperature synthesis of spinels MAl204 (M=Mg, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn) prepared by a sol-gel method.- Properties of insoluble mixed monolayers of lipids at the water/air interface.- Enhancement of weak radiative transitions of Eu3+ in thin surfactant films in the presence of poly(methyl methacrylate).- Phase transition in monolayers induced by adsorbed amphiphiles.- Molecular recognition under formation of amphiphilic amidinium carboxylates at the air—water interface.- Equilibrium and dynamics of dissolved homologue penetration into an N-tetradecyl-?-hydroxybutyric acid amide monolayer forming crystalline condensed phases.- Polymer-Surfadant Interactions.- Using multilamellar vesicles to incorporate glucose oxidase into a polypyrrole film.- Association of hydrophobically modified poly(sodium acrylate) with cationic copolymers based on N-isopropylacrylamide.- Effect of mixing lipophilic and hydrophilic silicone surfactant systems.- Surprising effects of polymer-surfactant solutions on inorganic crystallization processes.- Structure and Dynamics at Interfaces.- Oil-in-water microemulsions to solubilize acrylic copolymers: application in cultural heritage conservation.- Stable dispersions of Ca(0H)2 in aliphatic alcohols: properties and application in cultural heritage conservation.- Structure and dynamics of two-dimensional colloidal systems in circular cavities.- Substrate-induced phase transitions in two-dimensional colloidal systems.- Crystal nucleation versus vitrification in charged colloidal suspensions.- The kinetics of irreversible aggregation processes.- Crystal growth kinetics in deionised two-component colloidal suspensions.- Titanium dioxide nanoparticle films made by using poly(ethylene glycol) oligomers as templates.- Investigations of adsorption and porosity properties of pure and modified zeolites by means of thermal analysis and sorptometry techniques.- Relation between the IR spectrum of water and decarboxylation kinetics in microemulsions.- Interactions of colloidal grafted silica with transition-metal cations.- Adsorption of poly(isobutenylsuccinimide) dispersants at a solid-hydrocarbon interface.- A single-cluster light scattering study of fast-aggregating protein-coated polymer colloids.- Kinetics of growth of submicrometer crystalline lanthanum fluoride particles using the pF-stat method.- Colloidal interaction at the air—liquid interface: experimental results.- Biocolloids.- Hydrophobically modified calcium-induced ?-carrageenan gels.- Ultrasonic studies of the development of flocculation in mixed sodium caseinate and Tween 20 emulsions.- Aggregation and gel formation in biopolymer solutions.- Temperature dependence of salt-induced aggregation in poly(ethylene oxide)-coated latex particle suspensions.- New biosurfactants containing ?-lactam and triazole rings.- Colloids in Pharmaceutical and Biological Applcations.- Hydrophilic matrices as carriers in felodipine solid dispersion systems.- Surface modification for controlled cell growth on copolymers of N-isopropylacrylamide.- Elastically ineffective chain formation in networks at high initiator concentration.- Interactions between DNA and surfactants.- Liposome—DNA complex investigated by dielectric spectroscopy and circular dichroism.- Antimicrobial activity and biodegradability of N-alkylaldonamides.- Gelatin-modified surfaces in selected electronic components.- Electrophoretic mobility and swelling behaviour of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid /poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel particles(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel particles.- Formation and stability of nano-emulsions in mixed nonionic surfactant systems.- New Trends in Colloids and Interface Science Techniques.- Incipient growth of CdS films from weakly supersaturated solutions.- Rheology.- Effect of addition of chitosan on rheological properties of acidified milk gels.- Real-space imaging and motion analysis in sheared colloidal crystals.- Theoretical and experimental investigation of the coalescence efficiency of droplets in simple shear flow.- Rheological properties of highly concentrated fluorinated water-in-oil emulsions.- Self Assembly of Amphiphiles.- Are particle gels “glasses”?.- Influence of cationic surfactants on DNA conformation.- Comparison of the aggregation behavior of water-soluble hexa(sulfobutyl)fullerenes and polyhydroxylated fullerenes for their free-radical scavenging activity.- Modulation of interfacial properties of functionalized calixarenes.- DNA-induced fusion of phosphatidylcholine vesicles.- Mineralization of lipidic tubules.- Vesicular precipitates from surfactant/cosurfactant mixtures.- The phase behavior of the Triton X-114-water system and the hydrophile-lipophile balance theory.- Measurements in Concentrated Suspensions.- Properties of mixed colloidal crystals.- Solidification kinetics of hard-sphere colloidal suspensions.- The information content of multiple scattering data: Monte Carlo and laboratory experiments.- Aggregation processes in dense reverse micelles.- Infuence of surface characteristics on fast-aggregating protein-coated polymer colloids.- Liquid-solid transitions of disklike colloids: stability and jamming.