Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 66, Number 5, June 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 756 - 762 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2003-10246-4 | |
Published online | 01 May 2004 |
Evidence for diffusion-controlled recombination kinetics in model wormlike micelles
1
Schlumberger Cambridge Research, High Cross Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0EL, UK
2
Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK
Received:
19
December
2003
Accepted:
24
March
2004
We study the recombination kinetics and stress relaxation in a
generic reversible polymer model, which is believed to resemble a
wormlike micellar system. We find evidence that, at high
concentrations, the recombination kinetics in this model cannot
be described by a mean-field approach, but is
diffusion-controlled and dominated by self-recombination events.
We observe that the long-time stress relaxation of unentangled
chains is proportional to ,
with a relaxation time given by
, where th is the
average diffusion time to a different chain end, and
is the characteristic relaxation time
of a system of “dead” polymers of length equal to the average
micellar length. A recombination activation barrier is needed to
drive the system towards mean-field behaviour. This, in its turn,
is often required in order to realistically model the rheology
and dynamics of wormlike micelles.
PACS: 82.20.Wt – Computational modeling; simulation / 83.80.Qr – Surfactant and micellar systems, associated polymers
© EDP Sciences, 2004
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