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Gelation

Grow with the flow

So far, flow-induced transitions and structures formed by the assembly of surfactant micelles have been reversible. Now, a microporous extensional flow process forms a permanent gel, which remains intact even after flow has stopped.

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Figure 1: A schematic of a spherical micelle of surfactant molecules in aqueous solution.
Figure 2: The formation of a permanent gel, made up of a network of micelles, using a microfluidic porous-medium technique.

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Pasquali, M. Grow with the flow. Nature Mater 9, 381–382 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2761

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