Rheological studies of freely suspended soap films

We have developed an original viscometer that allows the determination of t he viscoelastic properties of freely suspended soap films. We have found th at soap films have a very high shear viscosity and a small shear modulus th at might be associated with a glassy (gel-like) behavior. The incorporation of polymer chains inside the soap films does not change very significantly these viscoelastic properties that are governed by the dense packing of th e surfactant in the interfacial films; nevertheless, the role of the polyme r can be qualitatively described by scaling laws.