Abstract
Deuteron magnetic resonance (DMR) was used to characterize different liquid crystalline phases of the system potassium stearate-water. In this system the hydrocarbon chains undergo a reversible transition between a high temperature disordered state, with ‘liquid-like’ character, and a low temperature ordered one, with stiff and parallel chains. The behavior of deuterated soap and water molecules is investigated in both types of mesophases. Results for phases with disordered chains are similar to those of earlier DMR studies of the potassium laurate-water liquid crystal: the chain disorder coming from isomeric bond rotations depends not only on temperature but also on water content, indicating that the polar head interactions contribute to the chain behavior. Results for phases with ordered chains show a quite different behavior: the all trans chains are only slightly deformed by the effects of bending and torsional modes of the chain skeleton, and this description appears independent of water content. The last point shows that the chain packing in phases with ordered chains is dominated by chain interactions. This suggests that these two types of liquid crystalline phases are fundamentally different as far as their local equilibrium is concerned.
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