(481d) Nanostructural Aspects of Drag-reduction

In my 25 years of collaboration with Jack Zakin we investigated how the nanostructure of the aggregates formed by surfactant molecules affects the rheology of the systems and its ability to reduce drag. We investigated the effects of the nature of those molecules, the counter-ions, co-solvents, and temperature. We also studied how those nanostructures are affected by shear and elongation forces. Our main tool has been direct imaging by cryogenic-temperature transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). In my talk I will describe briefly the methodology we used, and the most important results we have have collected. I will also describe some new developments in the methodology, of importance to high-resolution imaging of complex liquids in general.