Order and chaos in soft condensed matter

Soft matter, like colloidal suspensions and surfactant gels, exhibit strong response to modest external perturbations. This paper reviews our recent experiments on the nonlinear flow behaviour of surfactant worm-like micellar gels. A rich dynamic behaviour exhibiting regular, quasi-periodic, intermittency and chaos is observed. In particular, we have shown experimentally that the route to chaos is via Type-II intermittency in shear thinning worm-like micellar solution of cetyltrimethylammonium tosylate where the strength of flow-concentration coupling is tuned by the addition of sodium chloride. A Poincaré first return map of the time series and the probability distribution of laminar length between burst events show that our data are consistent with Type-II intermittency. The existence of a ‘Butterfly’ intensity pattern in small angle light scattering (SALS) measurements performed simultaneously with the rheological measurements confirms the coupling of flow to concentration fluctuations in the system under study. The scattered depolarised intensity in SALS, sensitive to orientational order fluctuations, shows the same time-dependence (like intermittency) as that of shear stress.     

Electrode kinetics of Eu3+/Eu2+ reaction by cyclic voltammetry

The cyclic voltammetric behaviour of Eu³⁺/Eu²⁺ couple at hanging mercury drop electrode (HMDE) has been studied in chloride, bromide, iodide, thiocyanate and EDTA supporting electrolytes. The apparent rate constant and transfer coefficient for these systems have been calculated at various voltage scan rates, without using the data for standard or formal potential. The values have been compared with those obtained by earlier workers through other electrochemical methods.     

Neutron activation cross-section of zirconium-94

The thermal neutron activation cross-section of⁹⁴Zr was found to be 49.3±0.6 millibarns. It is shown that neutron activation analysis of Zr in silicate samples with a Zr/U ratio<10 has considerable uncertainty due to fission contribution. A correction factor for the fission contribution has been determined experimentally.     

γ-radiolysis of acetylated cotton cellulose: An ESR study

The nature and behavior of free radicals induced in acetylated cotton celluloses irradiated with γ-rays have been studied by electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Dehydrogenation and deacetylation appear to be responsible for the free radicals observed from samples irradiated at 77°K. The degree of substitution enhanced the yield of acetyl radicals when the samples were irradiated at 77°K and adversely affected the overall radical concentration when irradiation was done at 300°K. In addition, the ESR spectra of samples irradiated under vacuum at 300°K were more intense than those obtained from samples irradiated in air. The nature, yield, and post-irradiation behavior of the primary radicals are discussed in the light of the ultimate chemical effects observed.