Gelling by Heating

Abstract

We introduce a simple model, a binary mixture of patchy particles, which has been designed to form a gel upon heating. Due to the specific nature of the particle interactions, notably the number and geometry of the patches as well as their interaction energies, the system is a fluid both at high and at low temperatures, whereas at intermediate temperatures the system forms a solid-like disordered open network structure, i.e. a gel. Using molecular dynamics we investigate the static and dynamic properties of this system.