Exploiting Rheo-SANS to investigate heterogeneity in supramolecular systems

Functionalised dipeptides form micellar aggregates at high pH. Analysis of the SANS data of such systems revealed the formation of cylinder-like structures, such as nanotubes and fibrils. We have recently employed a computational approach, CREASE-2D, to gather information on structural features that may be hidden during data reduction processes. Interestingly, our data shows that the structures formed by such systems have a higher degree of complexity than predicted by analysis of the 1D SANS patterns. Specifically, the output data indicates presence of more tortuous structures with high eccentricity that varies along the tubes, information that would not be available from data fitting. Here, we wish to understand if we can access these structural features by shearing and homogenising samples through a Rheo-SANS approach. By doing so, we aim to observe new structures that are more representative of the primary fibres within the samples and how these relate to previous SANS data collected within static cells.