ABSTRACT
Wormlike micellar solutions exhibit a rich and complex rheological behavior because of their dynamical nature (continuous breaking and re-formation) and their ability to form entanglements similar to those of polymer solutions [1-8]. A crucial parameter in understanding the dynamics of wormlike micelles is the ratio of the breaking and the reptation times, ζ (=τbreak/τrep) [9,10]. Depending on this ratio, the response at low frequencies can range, in the linear viscoelastic regime, from near-Maxwell behavior with a single relaxation time to a polymer-like behavior with a spectrum of relaxation times [2,4,9,10]. At high frequencies, because of the occurrence of the Rouse and other relaxation mechanisms, deviations from Maxwell behavior are observed even in the fast breaking regime [10].
