Formation and Transitions of Mesoscopic Structures in Soft Matter

Abstract

We discuss the recent development of formation of mesoscopic structures and kinetics of morphological transitions in soft matter. Special attention are paid to the so-called interconnected bicontinuous structures such as a gyroid. It is stressed that there are often intermediate metastable structures in the process of the morphological transitions. In particular, we describe Fddd structure and a perforated lamellar structure comparing the experiments of water-surfactant systems and block copolymers. The unsolved future problems are also emphasized.