Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2023 APS March Meeting
Volume 68, Number 3
Las Vegas, Nevada (March 5-10)
Virtual (March 20-22); Time Zone: Pacific Time
Session S16: Membranes, Micelles, and Vesicles
8:00 AM–10:36 AM,
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Room: Room 208
Sponsoring
Unit:
DSOFT
Chair: Chenxian Xu, University of Illinois Chicago
Abstract: S16.00011 : Surface Forces Sculpt Nanoscopic Mesas in Micellar Foam Films*
10:00 AM–10:12 AM
Presenter:
Chenxian Xu
(University of Illinois at Chicago)
Authors:
Chenxian Xu
(University of Illinois at Chicago)
Yiran Zhang
(10X Genomics)
Subinur I Kemal
(Abbott)
Vivek Sharma
(University of Illinois Chicago)
dependent disjoining pressure influences the topography of ultrathin supported and freestanding
films of soft matter. The confinement-induced structuring and layering of supramolecular
structures like micelles provide non-DLVO oscillatory structural contributions to disjoining
pressure. In micellar foam films, the oscillatory structural disjoining pressure drives drainage
via stratification, associated with coexisting thick-thin flat regions and stepwise thickness
evolution. Stratification in micellar foam film proceeds by nucleation and growth of thinner
domains at the expense of surrounding thicker film. Often brighter halos arise around
growing domains, before creating a necklace with one, two, or more bright spots. Even though
such brighter regions were attributed in publications to a possible formation of thicker non-
flat regions including nanoridges, the experimental and theoretical characterization of
nanoscopic topography have remained longstanding challenges. Here, we show the use of
IDIOM (interferometry digital imaging optical microscopy) protocols for visualizing and
analyzing the nanoscopic thickness transitions in stratifying micellar foam films, with
exquisite spatial (thickness < 10 nm, lateral < 1 μm) and temporal resolution (< 1 ms). We
discern the nanoridge at the moving front and analyze the topographical instability leading to
the formation of nanoscopic mesas that can grow and often coalesce with other mesas along the
moving front. Finally, we provide a theoretical model based on thin film equation amended
with supramolecular oscillatory structural disjoining pressure and show that the shape and
size evolution of nanoridges and mesas can be captured quantitatively.
*NSF CBET 180611
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