Light-Triggered Rheological Changes in a System of Cationic Wormlike Micelles Formulated with a Photoacid Generator

“Smart” fluids displaying large changes in their rheological properties in response to external stimuli have been of great interest in recent years. For example, “smart” wormlike micelles (WLMs) that respond to pH can be readily formulated by combining a cationic surfactant such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with an aromatic compound such as 1,2-dihydroxybenzene (DHB). Here, we show that a pH-responsive aqueous formulation as mentioned above can be simultaneously made responsive to ultraviolet (UV) light by incorporating a photoacid generator (PAG) into the system. A commercially available PAG, diphenyliodonium-2-carboxylate, is used here. Upon exposure to UV light, this PAG irreversibly photolyzes into iodobenzene (IB) and benzoic acid (BA), with the formation of BA, leading to a drop in pH. WLMs formed by mixtures of CTAB, DHB, and the PAG are systematically characterized before and after UV irradiation. As the PAG photolyzes, an increase in the viscosity of WLMs occurs by a factor of 1000. We show that the ratio of the zero-shear viscosity η0 (after UV/before UV) depends on the initial pH of the sample. The UV-induced increase in η0 can be attributed to the growth of WLMs in solution, which in turn is influenced by both the ionization state of DHB and the presence of IB and BA.