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Published on: October 15, 2015
Nonlinear dynamics in micellar surfactant solutions. II. Diffusion
Joshua A Mysona1, Alon V McCormick1, David C Morse1
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Abstract:
We discuss diffusion in micellar surfactant solutions in a form appropriate for analyzing experiments that involve large deviations from equilibrium. A general nonlinear dynamical model for inhomogeneous systems is developed that describes the effects of diffusion and micelle kinetics as a set of coupled partial differential equations for unimer concentration, micelle number concentration, average micelle aggregation number, and, optionally, the variance of the micelle aggregation number. More specialized models are developed to describe slow dynamics in situations in which the system stays in a state of partial local equilibrium or full local equilibrium. As an illustrative example of a nonlinear transport phenomenon, we discuss a simple model of diffusion from an initially homogeneous micellar solution to a rapidly created absorbing interface with fast unimer adsorption.
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