title: Fluctuations in chemical gelation.
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 an interesting inhomogeneous gel fiber 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.
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Solid State Physics, the University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohira
authors.forename: Masatoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Mahito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kohmoto