论文标题
粘弹性凝胶中的相位分离和成熟
Phase Separation and Ripening in a Viscoelastic Gel
论文作者
论文摘要
弹性固体和粘性流体中相位分离的过程对于软材料的稳定性和功能至关重要。我们探索粘弹性材料（例如聚合物凝胶）中相位分离和结构域生长的动力学。使用分析理论和蒙特卡洛模拟，我们报告了一种新的结构域生长制度，其中域的大小通过取决于材料的粘弹性特性的成熟指数$α$增加代数。对于典型的麦克斯韦材料，我们获得$α= 1 $，这与$α= 1/3 $的著名奥斯特瓦尔德成熟过程明显不同。我们将我们的理论推广到具有任意幂律放松行为的系统，并在材料的长期稳定性的背景下讨论了我们的发现，以及在交联网络和细胞骨架中对相位分离的最新实验结果。
The process of phase separation in elastic solids and viscous fluids is of fundamental importance to the stability and function of soft materials. We explore the dynamics of phase separation and domain growth in a viscoelastic material such as a polymer gel. Using analytical theory and Monte Carlo simulations we report a new domain growth regime, in which the domain size increases algebraically with a ripening exponent $α$ that depends on the viscoelastic properties of the material. For a prototypical Maxwell material, we obtain $α=1$, which is markedly different from the well-known Ostwald ripening process with $α=1/3$. We generalize our theory to systems with arbitrary power-law relaxation behavior and discuss our findings in the context of the long-term stability of materials as well as recent experimental results on phase separation in cross-linked networks and cytoskeleton.
