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Soft core fluid in a quenched matrix of soft core particles: a mobile mixture in a model gel

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posted on 2014-10-09, 14:10 authored by Andrew ArcherAndrew Archer, Matthias Schmidt, Robert Evans
We present a density-functional study of a binary phase-separating mixture of soft core particles immersed in a random matrix of quenched soft core particles of larger size. This is a model for a binary polymer mixture immersed in a cross-linked rigid polymer network. Using the replica "trick" for quenched-annealed mixtures we derive an explicit density functional theory that treats the quenched species on the level of its one-body density distribution. The relation to a set of effective external potentials acting on the annealed components is discussed. We relate matrix-induced condensation in bulk to the behavior of the mixture around a single large particle. The interfacial properties of the binary mixture at a surface of the quenched matrix display a rich interplay between capillary condensation inside the bulk matrix and wetting phenomena at the matrix surface. © 2006 The American Physical Society.

Funding

A.J.A. acknowledges the support of EPSRC under Grant No. GR/S28631/01. M.S. acknowledges the support of the SFB TR6 ‘‘Colloidal dispersions in external fields’’ of the DFG.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Published in

Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

Volume

73

Issue

1

Citation

ARCHER, A.J., SCHMIDT, M. and EVANS, R., 2006. Soft core fluid in a quenched matrix of soft core particles: a mobile mixture in a model gel. Physical Review E, 73 (1), 011506.

Publisher

© The American Physical Society

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2006

Notes

This article was published in the journal, Physical Review E [© The American Physical Society].

ISSN

1539-3755

eISSN

1550-2376

Language

  • en

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