Effect of charge polydispersity and charge residence time on the dynamics of a micellar system
Résumé
We use dynamic light scattering to investigate the effects of charge polydispersity and charge
residence time on the dynamics of a micellar system. While in the corresponding uncharged system only
one exponential relaxation is observed, two relaxation modes are seen when charging the micelles by
adding charged co-surfactant molecules with a long residence time. We attribute the existence of these
two relaxation modes to the combined effect of size polydispersity and charge polydispersity, i.e. frozen
fluctuations of the number of charges per micelle. Further support to this scenario is provided by control
experiments on a similar charged system, but where the charge residence time is short compared to the
time scales probed by dynamic light scattering. Here, charge polydispersity is effectively suppressed due
to the rapid exchange of charged molecules between micelles and only one single relaxation mode is seen,
thereby demonstrating the key role of frozen charge fluctuations in the complex dynamics of our micellar
system.