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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 23
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 238303 (2007) [4 pages]

Strain-Rate Frequency Superposition: A Rheological Probe of Structural Relaxation in Soft Materials

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Hans M. Wyss1, Kunimasa Miyazaki2,3, Johan Mattsson1, Zhibing Hu4, David R. Reichman2, and David A. Weitz1
1Department of Physics & HSEAS, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
2Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
3The Research Institute of Kochi University of Technology, Tosa Yamada, Kochi 782-8502, Japan
4Department of Physics, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76203, USA

Received 18 August 2006; published 7 June 2007

The rheological properties of soft materials often exhibit surprisingly universal linear and nonlinear features. Here we show that these properties can be unified by considering the effect of the strain-rate amplitude on the structural relaxation of the material. We present a new form of oscillatory rheology, strain-rate frequency superposition (SRFS), where the strain-rate amplitude is fixed as the frequency is varied. We show that SRFS can isolate the response due to structural relaxation, even when it occurs at frequencies too low to be accessible with standard techniques.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.238303
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.238303
PACS:
83.60.Bc, 83.80.Hj, 83.80.Iz
 
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