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Abstract:We propose a simple µ-rheology technique to evaluate the viscoelastic properties of complex fluids. The method is based on the use of magnetic wires of a few microns in length submitted to a rotational magnetic field. In this work, the method is implemented on a surfactant wormlike micellar solution that behaves as an ideal Maxwell fluid. With increasing frequency, the wires undergo a transition between a steady and a hindered rotation regime. The study shows that the average rotational velocity and the amplitudes of the oscillations obey scaling laws with well-defined exponents. From a comparison between model predictions and experiments, the rheological parameters of the fluid are determined. -IntroductionRheology is the study of flow and deformation of fluids when they are submitted to mechanical stresses. Conventional rheometers determine the relationship between strain and stress in steady or oscillating flow on samples of a few milliliters. µ-rheology in contrast studies the motion of micron-size probe particles that are thermally fluctuating via the interactions with a surrounding medium, or particles that are forced by an external field. In the first case, the µ-rheology is said to be passive, in the second active. In both cases, the motion of the probes is related by the mechanical properties of the medium. Fluids produced in small quantities, e.g. costly protein dispersion or fluids confined in small volumes down to 1 picoliter, such as living cells can only be examined by this technique. With the development of microfluidics systems in the last decade [1], rapid advances were made in the field of µ-rheology. Standard experimental protocols and data treatment softwares are now available and implemented on a regular and controlled basis [2][3][4][5][6][7]. The correspondence between µ-and macro-rheology is nowadays well established. In µ-rheology, the objective is to translate the motion of a probe particle into the relevant rheological

Small-angle neutron scattering is used to measure the two-dimensional diffraction pattern of a monophasic magnetic colloid, under an applied magnetic field. This dipolar system presents in zero field a fluidlike structure. It is well characterized by an interaction parameter K(0)(T) proportional to the second virial coefficient, which is here positive, expressing a repulsion of characteristic length kappa-10. Under the field a strong anisotropy is observed at the lowest q vectors. The length kappa-10 remains isotropic, but the interaction parameter K(T) becomes anisotropic due to the long-range dipolar interaction. However, the system remains stable, the interaction being repulsive in all directions. Thus we do not observe any chaining of the nanoparticles under magnetic field. On the contrary, the revealed structure of our anisotropic colloid is a lowering of the concentration fluctuations along the field while the fluidlike structure, observed without field, is roughly preserved perpendicularly to the field. It expresses a strong anisotropy of the Brownian motion of the nanoparticles in the solution under applied field.

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International audienceThe dynamical rotational behavior of magnetic nanostructured rods based on the auto-association of maghemite nanoparticles and block-copolymers is probed by optical microscopy under rotating fields in a simple liquid. The re-orientation of the rods by a field rotated by 90° is first studied. The measured relaxation is characteristic of paramagnetic objects. Under a stationary rotating field, a synchronous rotational regime is observed at low field frequency. Above a frequency threshold which scales as H2, the dynamics becomes asynchronous with back-and-forth rotations. These behaviors are well predicted by the presented model