Applied Rheology, 6(14), p. 315-323, 2004
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Abstract The behaviour of reverse micellar solution and reverse hexagonal and lamellar liquid crystal phases in pluronic L64/water/p-xylene ternary system was investigated by rheological techniques. Samples with an increasing water content along the amphiphilic copolymer-lean side of the ternary phase diagram were analysed at different temperatures and a different behaviour was evidenced by both dynamic and steady tests for each considered phase, depending on the morphology of structure (micellar, lamellar, hexagonal phases). It was observed that the reverse micelles size increases with increasing water concentration and decreases with increasing temperature, without any phase transition. On the contrary the normal micelles become anisometric on temperature, showing a transition to a liquid crystalline phase. The observed mechanical spectra of the liquid crystalline phases are typical of hexagonal and lamellar phases according to the literature [1, 2]. A phase transition with temperature was found for both liquid crystalline phase (lamellar and hexagonal) by rheological tests and was confirmed by ocular inspection.