Rheo-NMR - how nuclear magnetic resonance is providing new insight regarding complex fluid rheology

Over the past five decades, NMR has revolutionised chemistry, and has found widespread application in condensed matter physics, in molecular biology, in medicine and in food technology. Most recently NMR has made a significant impact in chemical engineering, where it is being extensively used for the non-invasive study of dispersion and flow in porous media. One of the most recent applications of NMR in materials science concerns its use in the study of the mechanical properties of complex fluids. This particular aspect of NMR has been extensively developed in research carried out at Massey University in New Zealand. In this short article, some of the ideas behind this work and the applications which have resulted, will be described. These examples provide a glimpse of possible applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to the study of complex fluid rheology. While this is a very new field of research in which only a handful of groups presently participate, the potential exists for a substantial increase in Rheo-NMR research activity. Systems studied to date include polymer melts and semi-dilute solutions, thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals and liquid crystalline polymers, micellar solutions, food materials and colloidal suspensions. Rheo-NMR suffers in a number of respects by comparison with optical methods. It is expensive, it is difficult to use, it suffers from poor signal-to-noise ratios and the effective interpretation of spectra often depends on familiarity with the nuclear spin Hamiltonian and the associated effects of spin dynamics. Nonetheless NMR offers some unique advantages, including the ability to work with opaque materials, the ability to combine velocimetry with localised spectroscopy, and the ability to access a wide range of molecular properties relating to organisation, orientation and dynamics. Rheo-NMR has been able to provide a direct window on a variety of behaviours, including slip, shear-thinning, shear banding, yield stress behaviour, nematic director alignment and shear-induced mesophase reorganisation. The unique information available with this method suggests that it is likely to become an important tool in elucidating die intriguing rheological behaviour of a wide range of complex fluids