THE STUDY OF ANISOTROPICALLY SHAPED MICELLES SUBJECTED TO SHEAR-FLOW BY SMALL-ANGLE NEUTRON-SCATTERING

The development of Couette shear-flow cells for use with small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) has provided the opportunity for the morphology of solutions of anisotropically shaped surfactant micelles to be probed in more detail and for the effects of shear on such structures to be explored. The effects of finite concentration (hindered rotation and interactions), flexibility, and shear-induced changes/structures are described for elongated micelles in their dilute phase (for a range of ionic, nonionic, and mixed ionic-nonionic micelles). Some recent measurements on nonionic and mixed ionic-nonionic micelles demonstrate that SANS can provide a vital insight into the rheological properties and morphology of micellar solutions over a wider region of their complex phase diagrams. © 1995 Plenum Publishing Corporation