title: Connecting irreversible to reversible aggregation: time and temperature.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: CNR-INFM Polylab, CNR-INFM Polylab, Largo Pontercorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Corezzi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Michele
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zaccarelli
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tartaglia
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sciortino
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D005782:Gels / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005782:Gels