Threadlike Systems Research Articles

Small-angle scattering behavior of thread-like and film-like systems

Film-like and thread-like systems are, respectively, defined by the property that one of the constituting homogenous phases has a constant thickness (δ) or a constant normal cross section (of largest chord δ). The stick probability function of this phase, in the limit δ → 0, naturally leads to the definition of the correlation function (CF) of a surface or of a curve. This CF closely approximates the generating stick probability function in the range of distances larger than δ. The surface and the curve CFs, respectively, behave as 1/rand as 1/r2asrapproaches zero. This result implies that the relevant small-angle scattering intensities behave as {\cal P}_{{\cal S}}/q^2 or as {\cal P}_{{\cal C}}/q in the intermediate range of the scattering vector magnitude (q) and as {\cal P}/q^4 in the outermostqrange. Similarly to {\cal P}, pre-factors {\cal P}_{{\cal S}} and {\cal P}_{{\cal C}} simply depend on some structural parameters. Depending on the scale resolution it may happen that a given sample looks thread like at large scale, film like at small scale and particulate at a finer scale. An explicit example is reported. As a practical illustration of the above results, the surface and the curve CFs of some simple geometrical shapes have been explicitly evaluated. In particular, the CF of the right circular cylinder is evaluated. Its limits, as the height or the diameter the cylinder approaches zero, are shown to coincide with the CFs of a circle and of a linear segment, respectively.

Microrheology of solutions embedded with thread-like supramolecular structures

A family of methods uses colloidal particles as a mechanical probe for deforming the medium in conjunction with a procedure to trace the movement of the particles to get rheological information in a very wide frequency range. All of them are under the heading of microrheology. In the last decade, they have been developed up to the point of being a useful tool for understanding the structure and the dynamics of solutions with embedded thread-like supramolecular structures. This is the case of wormlike micellar solutions, which is the main interest of the paper. Here the impact of microrheology has been essential, providing structural information not easily obtained by other methods. Microrheology has also made an important contribution to the understanding of other threadlike system, as in the case of F-actin or fd virus solutions; they will also be discussed.