Presidential Young Investigator Award: Surfactant Solution Properties and Fluid Microstructure

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The macroscopic properties of surfactant-oil water emulsion, polymer solutions and gels, biological membranes and other structured fluids depend intimately on their often unique microstructure. Freeze-fracture replication transmission electron microscopy (FFRTEM) provides the most detailed and direct view of the three-dimensional spatial organization in any liquid system. For example, FFRTEM provides otherwise- unavailable information on the network structure aqueous polymer gels, making it possible to relate changes in network structure to chemical and mechanical treatments. This project will examine phase changes and critical fluctuations in aqueous polyacrylamide gels; such fluctuations have never before been visualized. The rod-coil transition of conducting polymers and the gel formation that results from this transition will also be examined with FFRTEM. A second area of interest is surfactant microstructure in solution. FFRTEM has provided the only view of micelles in concentrated surfactant-water mixtures and is the best probe for visualizing biological and synthetic bilayers.