Issue |
EPL
Volume 108, Number 2, October 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 28005 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/108/28005 | |
Published online | 23 October 2014 |
Micelle fragmentation and wetting in confined flow
1 Department of Applied Mathematics, the University of Western Ontario - 1151 Richmond Street North, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
2 Department of Chemistry & Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Received: 25 July 2014
Accepted: 1 October 2014
We use coarse-grained molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structural and dynamical properties of micelles under non-equilibrium Poiseuille flow in a nano-confined geometry. The effects of flow, confinement, and the wetting properties of die-channel walls on spherical sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) micelles are explored when the micelle is forced through a die-channel slightly smaller than its equilibrium size. Inside the channel, the micelle may fragment into smaller micelles. In addition to the flow rate, the wettability of the channel surfaces dictates whether the micelle fragments and determines the size of the daughter micelles: The overall behavior is determined by the subtle balance between hydrodynamic forces, micelle-wall interactions and self-assembly forces.
PACS: 82.70.Uv – Surfactants, micellar solutions, vesicles, lamellae, amphiphilic systems, (hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions) / 87.15.ap – Molecular dynamics simulation / 83.50.-v – Deformation and flow
© EPLA, 2014
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