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Published on: June 12, 2015
Shear-Induced Transformation of Polymer-Rich Lamellar Phases to Micron-Sized Vesicles
Sören Großkopf, Brigitte Tiersch1, Joachim Koetz1
1Colloid Chemistry, Department of Chemistry , Potsdam University , Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24-25 , Golm, 14469 Potsdam , Germany.
Abstract:
In the present work, we study the shear-induced transformation of polymer-rich lamellar phases into vesicles. The evolution of vesicle size is studied by different scattering techniques, rheology, and microscopy methods. The lamellar phase found in the system D2O/ o-xylene/ Pluronic PE9400/C8TAB can be fully transformed to multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) by applying shear. The size of the MLVs is proportional to the inverse square root of the shear rate. Hence, the polymer-based quaternary system behaves similar to lamellar phases based on small surfactant molecules. Additionally, we found a growth effect leading to a size increase of the vesicles after shearing was stopped.
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