Surfactant Rheology - Self-Assembly and Microstructure Dynamics

August 3, 2008 (Sunday)

Instructors

Instructor Biosketches

Patrick T. Spicer is a Technology Leader in the Procter and Gamble Company’s Complex Fluids Group in Corporate Engineering. His team focuses on fundamental study of microstructured liquids and process and product development using complex fluids. His research interests include surfactant phase behavior, complex fluid microstructural dynamics and transport, and colloid and nanoparticle production.

Srinivasa R. Raghavan is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. His group studies how amphiphilic molecules and particles self-assemble at the micro or nano scales. This research seeks to enable the design of new types of “smart” fluids and materials useful in consumer products, oil recovery, drug delivery, and nanotechnology.

Course Description

Although primarily known as modifiers of aqueous interfacial tension, surfactants exhibit a rich array of rheological behaviors as a result of their complex phase behavior. Consumer products are an example of commercial use of surfactants for their cleaning and surface treatment properties but also to modify liquid rheology. Additional surfactant research areas include drug delivery, nanoparticle synthesis by templating, and biophysical studies of cell transport.

This course will cover aqueous surfactant system rheology and its relationship with the numerous equilibrium phases formed. However, it also addresses the kinetic processes that are equally important to biological and industrial applications. The course theme is the theoretical and practical microstructure of different systems, their characterization, and their relationship with the resultant system rheology. The material is quantitative but highly visual, reflecting the topic's beauty via numerous illustrative movies and applications. Examples are drawn from applications in consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and petrochemicals.

The surfactant rheology course will enable industrial researchers, graduate students, and faculty to more readily apply and understand surfactant rheological variations at high and low concentrations and will connect disparate areas of research that typically don’t overlap.

Course Outline

1. Surfactant phase behavior and microstructure
   1. Thermodynamics and packing
   2. Interfacial properties
       
2. Micellar systems
   1. Micelles: Spheres, Worms, Shear-induced transitions
   2. Microemulsions and solubilized material effects
       
3. Liquid crystalline systems
   1. Hexagonal, Lamellar, Cubic, Sponge, Intermediate phases
   2. Gel Networks
   3. Mixing, Dispersion, Processing, and Manufacturing
       
4. Emulsions
   1. Low, medium, and HIPEs
   2. Crystallizing emulsions and partial coalescence
       
5. Kinetics of surfactant phase changes and rheological dynamics
   1. Static, diffusive data
   2. Microfluidic data
       
6. Gelation in surfactant systems
   1. Polymer and surfactant effects
   2. Gelators
       
7. Suspension/sedimentation of colloids and emulsions in concentrated surfactant systems
    
8. Aging and microrheology in surfactant and hybrid systems
    
9. Research frontiers