The Mayonnaise Effect.

Abstract

Structuring caused by the mixing of liquids or the addition of solutes to a solvent causes the viscosity to increase. The classical example is mayonnaise: a mixture of two low-viscosity liquids, water and oil, is structured through the addition of a surfactant creating a dispersed phase, causing the viscosity to increase a thousand-fold. The dramatic increase in viscosity in highly concentrated solutions is a long-standing unsolved problem in physical chemistry. Here we will show that this viscosity increase can be understood in terms of the solute-induced structuring of the first solvation shell, leading to a jamming transition at a critical concentration. As the jamming transition is approached, the viscosity naturally increases according to a Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann type expression. This result calls into question the validity of the Jones-Dole B-coefficient as an indicator of the structure making or breaking ability of solutes.