English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

We investigate the nucleation and propagation of cracks in self-assembledviscoelastic fluids, which are made of surfactant micelles reversibly linked bytelechelic polymers. The morphology of the micelles can be continuously tuned,from spherical to rod-like to wormlike, thus producing transient doublenetworks when the micelles are sufficiently long and entangled, and transientsingle networks otherwise. For a single network, we show that cracks nucleatewhen the sample deformation rate involved is comparable to the relaxation timescale of the network. For a double network, by contrast, significantrearrangements of the micelles occur as a crack nucleates and propagates. Weshow that birefringence develops at the crack tip over a finite length, $\xi$,which corresponds to the length scale over which micelles alignment occur. Wefind that $\xi$ is larger for slower cracks, suggesting an increase ofductility.

Rearrangement zone around a crack tip in a double self-assembled transient network