Decay of a shear-induced phase transition on a micellar solution measured by time-dependent small-angle neutron scattering

Transient small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments on sheared aqueous surfactant solutions of trimethyl(tetradecyl)ammonium salicylate (TTMA-Sal) are reported. A 0.005 M solution without shear shows a weak correlation peak. For steady shear rates above a threshold value of Γ = 50 s⁻¹ the scattering pattern shows an abrupt increase in anisotropy which is related to a shear-induced structure transition. The analysis of the anisotropic pattern reveals the existence of two types of micelle: short rodlike micelles which are weakly aligned and very long rodlike aggregates which are strongly aligned and which are only present for Γ above the threshold value. We report results on transient SANS measurements in which the shear rate was changed stepwise from a value of 400 s⁻¹ to zero. It is found that the smaller micelles are randomized in orientation, whereas the longer ones do not change orientation at all but their concentration vanishes. The number of surfactant molecules bound in the smaller micelles (type I) increases with time, whereas the number of surfactants bound in the larger ones (type II) decreases. The sum of both remains constant. The number of surfactant molecules bound in type II micelles decays exponentially with a half life of T_1/2 = 1.7 (1)  s.