Eur. Phys. J. E 9, 283-286 (2002)
DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2002-10081-5

Observation of a re-entrant kinetic glass transition in a micellar system with temperature-dependent attractive interaction

S.H. Chen¹, F. Mallamace^{1, 2}, A. Faraone¹, P. Gambadauro², D. Lombardo² and W.R. Chen<sup>1

1</sup>  Department of Nuclear Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
²  Dipartimento di Fisica and INFM, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy

francesco.mallamace@unime.it

(Received 9 Aprile 2002 / Published online: 23 December 2002)

Abstract
We detect in a tri-block co-polymer micellar system an ergodic-to-nonergodic-to-ergodic transition, as a function of temperature, in a range of concentrations, by photon correlation measurements. The shear viscosity is also shown to jump two order of magnitude at these transition temperatures. Surprisingly, the structure factor as measured by small angle neutron scattering shows a marked narrowing at the structural arrest state. Rationalization of these results with the existence of an attractive branch in the phase diagram of an attractive colloid system predicted by mode coupling theory is made.

PACS
64.70.-p - Specific phase transitions.
82.70.Dd - Colloids.
61.12.Ex - Neutron scattering techniques (including small-angle scattering).
61.25.Hq - Macromolecular and polymer solutions; polymer melts; swelling.

© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002