Related papers: Gelling by Heating
In this paper we use layer potentials and asymptotic analysis techniques to analyze the heat generation due to nanoparticles when illuminated at their plasmonic resonance. We consider arbitrary-shaped particles and both single and multiple…
Using molecular dynamics computer simulations we investigate the aging dynamics of a gel. We start from a fractal structure generated by the DLCA-DEF algorithm, onto which we then impose an interaction potential consisting of a short-range…
The general description of formation the cellular structure in the system of interacting particles is proposed. Interactions between particles are presumably well-understood and the phase transition in which can be studied in the scale of…
A simple phenomenological model of a binary granular mixture is developed and investigated numerically. We attempt to model the experimental system of [1,2] where a horizontally vibrated binary monolayer was found to exhibit a transition…
How mixed can one component of a bi-partite system be initially and still become entangled through interaction with a thermalized partner? We address this question here. In particular, we consider the question of how mixed a two-level…
We define a lattice model for the interaction of a polymer with water. We solve the model in a suitable approximation. In the case of a non-polar homopolymer, for reasonable values of the parameters, the polymer is found in a non-compact…
We study the formation of a colloidal gel by means of Molecular Dynamics simulations of a model for colloidal suspensions. A slowing down with gel-like features is observed at low temperatures and low volume fractions, due to the formation…
Different methods for creating Olympic gels are analyzed using computer simulations. First ideal reference samples are obtained from freely interpenetrating semi-dilute solutions and melts of cyclic polymers. The distribution of pairwise…
We investigate the phase behaviour of 2D mixtures of bi-functional and three-functional patchy particles and 3D mixtures of bi-functional and tetra-functional patchy particles by means of Monte Carlo simulations and Wertheim theory. We…
We investigate theoretically the stability of thermo-capillary convection within a droplet when heated by a point source from below. To model the droplet, we use a mathematical model based on lubrication theory. We formulate a base-state…
In a recent paper [Beige, Knight, and Vitiello, quant-ph/0404160], we showed that a large number N of particles can be cooled very efficiently using a bichromatic interaction. The particles should be excited by red-detuned laser fields…
We present several numerical results on granular mixtures. In particular, we examine the efficiency of diffusion as a mixing mechanism in these systems. The collisions are inelastic and to compensate the energy loss, we thermalize the…
We have studied experimentally particle suspension when injecting a gas at the bottom of an immersed granular layer confined in a Hele-Shaw cell. This work focuses on the dynamics of particles slightly denser than the surrounding fluid. The…
We present a new model of patchy particles in which the interaction sites can be activated or deactivated by varying the temperature of the system. We study the thermodynamics of the system by means of Wertheim's first order perturbation…
The interface of a soft hydrogel is easily deformed when it is in contact with particles, droplets or cells. Here we compute the intricate shapes of hydrogel menisci due to the indentation of point particles. The analysis is based on a free…
In this thesis the formation and properties of a polymer gel on and at a surface are investigated. The gel under investigation is defined as a three-dimensional network of "phantom" macromolecules that form permanent links with one another…
Empty liquids represent a wide class of materials whose constituents arrange in a random network through reversible bonds. Many key insights on the physical properties of empty liquids have originated almost independently from the study of…
Experimental measurements of the specific heat in glass-forming systems reveal anomalies in the temperature dependence of the specific heat, including the so called "specific heat peak" in the vicinity of the glass transition. The aim of…
Mixtures of several macromolecular species can lead to the formation of higher-order structures that often display non-ideal mixing behavior. In this work, we propose a minimal model of a quaternary system which considers the formation of a…
We use molecular dynamics computer simulations to investigate the relaxation dynamics of a simple model for a colloidal gel at a low volume fraction. We find that due to the presence of the open spanning network this dynamics shows at low…