Dynamics of Concentration Fluctuations for a Micellar Solution

Abstract

The decay rate $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ for a micellar solution pentaethylene glycol mono $n$-dodecyl ether + water has been examined near the critical mixing point by light scattering. We find that the dynamic scaling behavior of ${\ensuremath{\Gamma}}^{*}[\frac{6\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\eta}(T)}{{k}_{\mathrm{B}}T}](\frac{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}{{k}^{3}})$ as a function of $k\ensuremath{\xi}$ over the range of $0.14\ensuremath{\lesssim}k\ensuremath{\xi}\ensuremath{\lesssim}6.2$ has an obvious kinship with that for a fluid mixture near the critical mixing point, where $\ensuremath{\eta}(T)$ is the shear viscosity and $\ensuremath{\xi}$ the correlation length. It is also found that the shear viscosity exhibits a critical-like power-law singularity and depends explicitly on shear gradients.