Static and dynamic properties of a network of wormlike surfactant micelles (cetylpyridinium chlorate in sodium chlorate brine)

Abstract

The structure of solutions of cetylpyridinium chlorate micelles is studied by light scattering and found to be analogous to that of polymer solutions in good solvent and in the semi dilute range. In contrast the micellar solutions are found here to be very fluid and their measured rheological properties are strikingly different from that of polymer solutions. These rheological properties are not accounted for by the recently developed model for semi dilute solutions of equilibrium polymers which described well the properties of other similar wormlike micellar systems. We suggest that the existence of crosslinks rather than entanglement points in the network of wormlike micelles could be responsible for these unexpected properties