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Fluctuations in Chemical Gelation

Kenji Ohira·Masatoshi Sato·Mahito Kohmoto
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Abstract

We study a chemical gelation model in two dimensions which includes both monomer aggregations and bond fluctuations. Our numerical simulation shows that a sol-gel transition occurs when an initial monomer concentration is above a critical concentration. Fractal aggregates grow until the sol-gel transition occurs. After the gelation, however, bond fluctuations break the fractal structure and a novel inhomogeneous gel fibre network appears instead. A pore size distribution of the inhomogeneous structure shows the existence of hierarchical structures in the gel phase. It is also found that slow dynamics appear near the critical concentration.

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Kenji Ohira, Masatoshi Sato, Mahito Kohmoto. 2007-05-21. Fluctuations in Chemical Gelation. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.75.041402

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