To understand the strong viscoelastic response showed by aqueous solutions of erucylbis(hydroxyethyl)methylammonium chloride (EHAC) in the presence of potassium chloride (KCl), steady-state rheology, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) experiments were performed. This cationic surfactant has the ability to self-assemble into giant wormlike micelles. The effect of surfactant concentration, added salt, and temperature were investigated. The surfactant solutions have a gellike behavior at room temperature and become Maxwellian as the temperature is increased. It was found that the low-shear viscosity has a strong dependence on salt concentration and temperature. Small-angle scattering indicated the formation of wormlike micelles. The high-Q range was fitted using the Kratky−Porod wormlike chain model, and a cross-sectional radius of gyration (R g,xs) of 21 Å was obtained. Additionally, cryo-TEM images revealed changes in the structure of the entangled network with the addition of salt.

The structural and dynamic properties of micellar solutions of erucyl bis(hydroxyethyl)methylammonium chloride blended with 2-propanol, in the presence of KCl, have been investigated by means of light scattering and rheological experiments. In the dilute regime, the micellar growth is larger than expected from mean-field or scaling models. The results obtained in the vicinity of the overlap concentration suggest the presence of large aggregates, with size >100 nm, possibly micellar rings or microgels. In the semidilute regime, the relationship between the zero shear viscosity and the surfactant concentration is described by a power law with an exponent in agreement with the mean-field model of linear micelles. The methods based on the analysis of the temperature dependence of the complex shear modulus to provide a measure of the scission energy are discussed.

Flow-SANS experiments were performed on viscoelastic aqueous solutions of erucyl bis(hydroxyethyl) methylammonium chloride in the presence of potassium chloride. This cationic surfactant has the ability to form very long and flexible wormlike micelles upon addition of salt. The effects of the key-parameters-shear rate, temperature, surfactant and salt concentration-on the ability of the micelles to align in the flow-field were investigated. The scattering data were analyzed in terms of an anisotropy factor (Af). It was found that the wormlike micelles aligned in the direction of the applied shear rate and that the anisotropy factor increased with shear rate. In addition, an increase in temperature caused a decrease of the anisotropy factor (Af) due to the formation of shorter worms. Furthermore, the branching of the micelles at high ionic strength caused the anisotropy factor to decrease in comparison with the values obtained from linear wormlike micelles, hence revealing that the formation of 3-way junctions restricts the alignment of the micelles in the shear-flow. Furthermore, the total surfactant concentration was found to affect the shear-induced patterns significantly, and different behaviors were observed depending on the ionic strength.