A NEW STRONGLY FLOW BIREFRINGENT SURFACTANT SYSTEM

In the present paper we report a new surfactant-hydrotope mixture of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium 3-hydroxynaphthalene-2-carboxylate whose aqueous solutions show two viscoelastic and two nematic liquid crystalline phases symmetrically placed about the equimolar ratio. It is demonstrated that the nematic to optically isotropic viscoelastic phase transition is driven by an increase of surface charge of the micelle. It is argued that the surface-active nature of both the molecules is the primary driving force for these transitions and the symmetry observed. Comparisons are made with the viscoelastic phases, spontaneous vesicles, and lyotropic nematic phases reported in the literature to bring out the unifying principles underlying the formation of these phases.