Microstructures, Nanostructures and Phase Transitions

Abstract

With a few exceptions, polyphasic fluids in particular, we have always assumed up to now that materials were constituted of a single phase, that is, a domain, solid or liquid, whose properties were uniform and independent of the structure. This macroscopic vision of the structure of materials does not hold up on more detailed observation of the systems; it is only an approximation which does not allow accounting for their properties.