Gelling by Heating

TL;DR

This paper presents a model of patchy particles that form a gel upon heating, showing a transition from fluid to gel and back, studied through molecular dynamics simulations of their static and dynamic properties.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel binary mixture model that gels upon heating due to specific particle interactions, expanding understanding of temperature-induced gelation mechanisms.

Findings

The system remains fluid at high and low temperatures.

At intermediate temperatures, it forms a disordered gel network.

Molecular dynamics reveal the static and dynamic properties of the gel formation.

Abstract

We introduce a simple model, a binary mixture of patchy particles, which has been designed to form a gel upon heating. Due to the specific nature of the particle interactions, notably the number and geometry of the patches as well as their interaction energies, the system is a fluid both at high and at low temperatures, whereas at intermediate temperatures the system forms a solid-like disordered open network structure, i.e. a gel. Using molecular dynamics we investigate the static and dynamic properties of this system.