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Microscopic interactions and emerging elasticity in model soft particulate gels.

Minaspi Bantawa1, Wayan A Fontaine-Seiler1, Peter D Olmsted1

  • 1Department of Physics, Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, Georgetown University, 37th and O Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20057, United States of America.

Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal
|July 15, 2021
PubMed
Summary

This study models particulate gels using attractive and repulsive forces between particles. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal how varying parameters controls gel structure and elasticity, offering insights into emergent network properties.

Keywords:
bending rigiditycoordination numberelastic modulusnetwork topologyparticulate gelsshort-range attraction

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Area of Science:

  • Soft Matter Physics
  • Materials Science
  • Computational Chemistry

Background:

  • Particulate gels are complex materials with properties arising from particle interactions.
  • Understanding the relationship between microscopic interactions and macroscopic gel properties is crucial.
  • Existing models may not fully capture the interplay of attractive and repulsive forces in gel formation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and investigate a model for particulate gels incorporating specific inter-particle interactions.
  • To explore how varying model parameters influences gel morphology and emergent elasticity.
  • To identify and analyze the role of local elastic structures in the gel network.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized molecular dynamics simulations to model particulate gel formation.
  • Employed an effective interaction model combining two-body attraction and three-body angular repulsion.
  • Analyzed gel morphologies and local elastic structures by systematically varying model parameters.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that model parameters control the sampling of diverse gel morphologies for a fixed gelation protocol.
  • Identified specific interlocking local elastic structures within the gel network for a given parameter set.
  • Provided an analytical expression for the elastic energy of these structures, linking microscopic interactions to emergent elasticity.

Conclusions:

  • The developed model effectively captures the formation of various particulate gel structures.
  • Local elastic structures play a key role in the emergent elasticity of particulate gels.
  • This work offers new insights into the microscopic origins of gel elasticity.