GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

MASTER OF SCIENCE

on Wednesday, July 24, 2019

12:00 PM
in Love 295

will be held the

MASTER’S THESIS DEFENSE

for

Zhou, Boyang

"Micellar and Liquid Crystalline Phases of Surfactant/Pluronic Mixtures Studied by Sans"

Committee Members:

Prof. Alberto Fernandez Nieves , Advisor, Physics

Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk, Co-advisor MSE

Changwoo Do, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract:

The phase behaviours of Pluronic L62 in aqueous solutions in the presence of Aerosol-OT(AOT) molecules  was investigated by small angle neutron scattering (SANS). The presence of AOT was found to significantly change the micellization phenomenon of L62 micelles in aqueous solutions, including their critical micelle temperature (CMT), global size, and asphericity. The origin of these observations is attributed to the complexation between the neutral L62 surfactants and the ionic AOT molecules: The ionic groups of AOT renders the molecular charge to the aggregates of L62/AOT. On the context on molecular charge, we address the phase properties of L62/AOT complexation such as the critical micelle temperature, global size, asphericity revealed by SANS at different controlled thermodynamic conditions.