Viscoelastic behavior of dense microemulsions

We have performed extensive measurements of shear viscosity, ultrasonic absorption, and sound velocity in a ternary system consisting of water--decane--sodium di(2-ethylhexyl)sulfo- succinate(AOT), in the one-phase region where it forms a water-in-oil microemulsion. We observe a rapid increase of the static shear viscosity in the dense microemulsion region. Correspondingly the sound absorption shows unambiguous evidence of a viscoelastic behavior. The absorption data for various volume fractions and temperatures can be reduced to a universal curve by scaling both the absorption and the frequency by the measured static shear viscosity. The sound absorption can be interpreted as coming from the high-frequency tail of the viscoelastic relaxation, describable by a Cole-Cole relaxation formula with unusually small elastic moduli.