The Molecular Origin of Rheological Properties

One of the central questions in the rheology of complex fluids is the molecular origin of mechanical propertie,s. Therefore, coupling of rheometry with techniques which are sensitive to molecular behaviour like molecular alignment, rotational reorientation, velocity distributions, and tramslational diffusion is required, A method which allow.s the detection of all these molecular characteristics is NMR imaging [Cal4J,... 

In this section, we shall consider rheo-optics in a broad sense so that the methods are aimed at elucidating the following two main themes (1) the stmctural or molecular origin of rheological properties, and (2) the so-called dissipative stmc-tures, which are defined as the stmctures developed under external fields, as open nonequilibrium phenomena in statistical mechanics. Theme (2) is generally important for understanding the pattern formation in nature exploration of the dissipative stmctures in the mesoscopic scale especially seems to be quite challenging. 

Dynamic absorption spectroscopy has also been used to study the molecular origins of macroscopic rheological properties of organic polymers, and several relevant reports on this topic have been reviewed by Gregoriou et al. [77]. 

---