Light-responsive threadlike micelles as drag reducing fluids with enhanced heat-transfer capabilities

Drag-reducing (DR) surfactant fluids based on threadlike micelles are known to suffer from poor heat-transfer capabilities. Accordingly, the use of these fluids is limited to recirculating systems in which heat exchange is not important. Here, we show for the first time that light-responsive threadlike micelles can offer a potential solution to the above problem. The fluids studied here are composed of the cationic surfactant Ethoquad O/12 PG (EO12) and the sodium salt of trans-ortho-methoxycinnamic acid (OMCA). Initially, these fluids contain numerous threadlike micelles and, in turn, are strongly viscoelastic and effective at reducing drag (up to 75% DR). Upon exposure to UV light, OMCA is photoisomerized from trans to cis. This causes the micelles to shorten considerably, as confirmed by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). Because of the absence of long micelles, the UV-irradiated fluid shows lower viscoelasticity and much lower DR properties; however, its heat-transfer properties are considerably superior to the initial fluid. Thus, our study highlights the potential of switching off the DR (and in turn enhancing heat-transfer) at the inlet of a heat exchanger in a recirculating system. While the fluids studied here are not photoreversible, an extension of the above concept would be to subsequently switch on the DR again at the exit of the heat exchanger, thus ensuring an ideal combination of DR and heat-transfer properties.