Gelling by heating.
We exploit the concept of competing interactions to design a binary mixture of patchy particles that forms a reversible gel upon heating. Our molecular dynamics computer simulation of such a system shows that with increasing temperature the relaxation dynamics slows down by more than four orders of magnitude and then speeds up again. The system is thus a fluid both at high and at low temperatures and a solid-like disordered open network structure at intermediate temperature. We further discuss the feasibility of realizing a real material with this reversible behavior.
Department of Physics, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, I-00185, Roma, Italy.
Sándalo
S
Roldán-Vargas
Frank
F
Smallenburg
Walter
W
Kob
Francesco
F
Sciortino
D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000737:chemistry*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005782:Gels / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D006361:Heating / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D044367:Phase Transition; D013816:Thermodynamics
D045424:Complex Mixtures; D005782:Gels