Interfacial Rheology

This is the first book on interfacial rheology and aims to describe both its history as well as the current, most frequently used experimental techniques for studying dilational and shear rheology of layers at liquid/gas and liquid/liquid interfaces. The book opens with a chapter on the fundamentals of interfacial rheology. All (16) contributions include the theoretical basis for the presented methodologies and experimental examples are given. This scientific field is relatively young with its beginnings in the sixties. At first the field developed rather slowly due to lack of professional instruments and was the domain of only very few highly specialized laboratories. In the past decade, good equipment has become more widely available and the Web of Science shows a strong increase in both number of articles published and an exponential increase in citations. This is mainly caused by the fact that interfacial rheology has been understood as one of the main factors in stabilizing liquid films, foams and emulsions. It gives important insight into the composition and structure of interfacial layers, essentially when built up from mixed solutions. The users of instruments for shear and dilational surface rheology, which are sold in increasing number year by year, therefore require this basic reading and overview of the available methods.