Viscoelastic detergent solutions properties

Many surfactant solutions are normal Newtonian liquids even up to rather high concentrations. Their viscosities are very small as compared with the viscosity of the solvent water. This is particulary the case for micellar solutions with concentrations up to 20% W/W in which spherical micelles are present. Even in the presence of rodlike micelles the viscosities can be rather low. Systems with rodlike micelles have recently been studied extensively. Missel et al. (1-2) studied alkylsulfate solutions and showed how the lengths of the rods can be varied by the addition of salt or by the detergent concentration. Under all these conditions the solutions are of rather low viscosity. On the other hand, we have studied a number of cationic detergent solutions in which rodlike micelles were formed and which all became quite viscous at rather low concentrations. In addition some of these solutions had elastic properties. The phenomenon of viscoelasticity in detergent solutions is not new. Exten-... 

Shikata T, Hirata K, Kotaka T (1987) Micelle formation of detergent molecules in aqueous media. 1. viscoelastic properties of aqueous cetyltrimethylammonium bromide solutions. Langmuir 3 1081-1086... 

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