Universal phase behavior of reversible polymer gels under mean field theory
ORAL
Abstract
We present a new field-based model of reversible polymer gels in solution that utilizes recently developed Coherent States (CS) approaches. We are able to predict both phase separation boundaries and percolation transitions by invoking a mean field approximation and show that a small set of dimensionless parameters control the phase behavior. Gaussian fluctuation analysis beyond the mean field approximation accounts for network defects including loops, but makes unphysical predictions in the dilute supernatant. Fully fluctuating Field Theoretic Simulations (FTSs) on the other hand give physically meaningful corrections to the mean field results.
*The authors acknowledge support from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1650114 and the NSF CMMT Program under Grant No. DMR-2104255. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
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Presenters
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Daniel L Vigil
- University of California, Santa Barbara