Brownian Motion

Albert P. Philipse (1956) studied chemistry and philosophy at Utrecht University and achieved his PhD (1987) in colloid science, with a thesis on light scattering from concentrated dispersions of charged silica spheres. At the Energy Research Center (ECN, The Netherlands), he lead projects on colloidal processing of technical ceramics and inorganic foams. In 1991 he joined the Van’ t Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry at Utrecht University where he is full professor of Physical Chemistry since 1994. Albert’s main research interests are the chemical synthesis, thermodynamics and physical transport properties of dispersions of charged, magnetic and non-spherical  colloids. Albert was Director of Chemical Education in 2006-2009 and is since 2016 Director of the master program Nano-Materials Science of Utrecht University. He teaches physical chemistry, thermodynamics and colloid science on bachelor, master and PhD level. He also has a teaching assignment inhistory of chemistry, and delivers guest lectures in primary and secondary schools. In addition to colloid science, Albert’s enthusiasms include music, travelling, cooking, and Ancient Greek.

• Preface.- A first round of Brownian motion.-  The feverish Sphinx.- Kinetic theory.-. A tale of ten time scales.-Continuity, constitution and Fick’s laws.-  Brownian displacements.-  Fluid flow.- Flow past spheres and simple geometries.-  Encounters of the Brownian kind.- Randon walks in external fields.- Brownian motion and Van 't Hoff's law- Appendices:  A. Moments, fluctuations and Gaussian integrals.- B. Summary vector calculus.- C. Answers to selected problems.-  Index.- Greek/Roman symbols.