We show photorheology in aqueous solutions of weakly entangled wormlike micelles prepared with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), salicylic acid (HSal), and dilute amounts of the photochromic multistate compound trans-2,4,4'-trihydroxychalcone (Ct). Different chemical species of Ct are associated with different colorations and propensities to reside within or outside CTAB micelles. A light-induced transfer between the intra- and intermicellar space is used to alter the mean length of wormlike micelles and hence the rheological properties of the fluid, studied in steady-state shear Bow and in dynamic rheological measurements. Light-induced changes of fluid rheology are reversible by a the relaxation process. at relaxation rates which depend on pH and which are consistent with photochromic reversion rates measured by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. Parameterizing viscoelostic rheological states by their effective relaxation time tau(c) and corresponding response modulus G(c), we find the light and dark states of the system to fall onto a characteristic state curve defined by comparable experiments conducted without photosensitive components. These reference experiments were prepared with the same concentration of CTAB, but different concentrations of HSal or sodium salicylote (NaSal), and tested at different temperatures.

Two new components have been identified in an early sample prepared according to the original recipe of Perkin, and perhaps even by Perkin himself around 1860 - a new isomer of Perkin's mauveine B (designated as mauveine B2) together with a new mauveine compound (mauveine C) - and these compounds were synthesized again using starting materials chosen to reproduce Perkin's original synthesis and isolated by HPLC-DAD, identified by H-1 NMR, MS and their spectroscopic (UV/Vis and emission) and photophysical behaviour investigated.