Connecting irreversible to reversible aggregation: time and temperature.
We report molecular dynamics simulations of a gel-forming mixture of ellipsoidal patchy particles with different functionality. We show that in this model, which disfavors the formation of bond-loops, elapsed time during irreversible aggregation--leading to the formation of an extended network--can be formally correlated with equilibrium temperature in reversible aggregation. We also show that it is possible to develop a parameter-free description of the self-assembly kinetics, bringing reversible and irreversible aggregation of loopless branched systems to the same level of understanding as equilibrium polymerization.
Corezzi
S
S
CNR-INFM Polylab, CNR-INFM Polylab, Largo Pontercorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy.
De Michele
C
C
Zaccarelli
E
E
Tartaglia
P
P
Sciortino
F
F
D003198:Computer Simulation; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
D005782:Gels