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Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Studying Surfactant Effects on Hydrate Crystallization at Oil-Water Interfaces Using a Low-Cost Integrated Modular Peltier Device
Published on: March 18, 2020
Effects of shear-induced crystallization on the complex viscosity of lamellar-structured concentrated surfactant
Parth U Kelkar1, Matthew Kaboolian1, Ria D Corder1,2
1School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA. erk@purdue.edu.
Abstract:
Material relationships at low temperatures were determined for concentrated surfactant solutions using a combination of rheological experiments, cross-polarized microscopy, calorimetry, and small angle X-ray scattering. A lamellar structured 70 wt% solution of sodium laureth sulfate in water was used as a model system. At cold temperatures (5 °C and 10 °C), the formation of surfactant crystals resulted in extremely high viscosity. The bulk flow behavior of multi-lamellar vesicles (20 °C) and focal conic defects (90 °C) in the lamellar phase was similar. Shear-induced crystallization at temperatures higher than the equilibrium crystallization temperature range resulted in an unusual complex viscosity peak. The effects of processing-relevant parameters including temperature, cooling time, and applied shear were investigated. Knowledge of key low-temperature structure-property-processing relationships for concentrated feedstocks is essential for the sustainable design and manufacturing of surfactant-based consumer products for applications such as cold-water laundry.
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