Effective viscosities in thin ionic micellar liquid films

Abstract

AbstractThin liquid films stabilized by surfactants above the critical micelle concentration exhibit stratification or stepwise dynamic thinning. A continuum hydrodynamic model is outlined for stepwise film thinning that incorporates equilibrium micellar structuring through self‐consistent oscillatory disjoining pressures and effective viscosities. Effective viscosities as functions of thickness are evaluated with an extension of the local average density model, considering dilute colloidal suspension shear viscosities and solvent effects. To establish local shear viscosities, structured DFT micellar profiles, coarse‐grained densities, and disjoining pressure are used. Ionic micelles and other colloidal systems with repulsive interactions show structured effective viscosities that are generally less than the corresponding homogeneous solution shear viscosity, bounded by the pure solvent viscosity and that of the bulk micellar solution. For 0.1 and 0.2‐M sodium dodecylsulfate micellar solutions, the effective viscosities are less than 5 and 10%, respectively, below the homogeneous fluid viscosity, except at small thicknesses, indicating that the micellar film thins faster than a pure water film of the same thickness.Calculated thinning curves closely resemble experimental observations in the stepwise thinning behavior, displaying decreasing slopes and increased step durations at later times. Despite the micellar structuring within the film, the ionic micelles do not contribute appreciably to the viscous resistance of the thinning film. Rather, Reynolds' film thinning is obeyed, with the equilibrium oscillatory disjoining pressures driving the stepwise dynamics. The shear viscosity of the ionic micellar film is well approximated by that of the bulk solution.