No abstract

Using a range of techniques combining rheology and magnetic resonance, we here investigate the flow and alignment properties of wormlike micelles formed by a 5% w/w solution of the BASF difunctional block copolymer nonionic surfactant, Pluronic P105 in water along with 4.3% w/v 1-phenylethanol-d 5 . A variety of shear-banding and alignment behaviors are observed, along with both stable and fluctuating flows. These strongly depend upon both temperature and applied shear rate. The deuterium-labelled alcohol enables study of alignment from quadrupole splitting, using a Hankel transform in the cylindrical geometry of our rheo-NMR cell.