The immunity of polymer-microemulsion networks |
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Authors: | G Hed S A Safran |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Materials and Interfaces, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel |
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Abstract: | The concept of network immunity, i.e., the robustness of
the network connectivity after a random deletion of edges or
vertices, has been investigated in biological or communication
networks. We apply this concept to a self-assembling, physical
network of microemulsion droplets connected by telechelic
polymers, where more than one polymer can connect a pair of
droplets. The gel phase of this system has higher immunity if it
is more likely to survive (i.e., maintain a
macroscopic, connected component) when some of the polymers are
randomly degraded. We consider the distribution
p(σ) of the number of polymers between a pair of
droplets, and show that gel immunity decreases as the variance
of p(σ) increases. Repulsive interactions between the
polymers decrease the variance, while attractive interactions
increase the variance, and may result in a bimodal p(σ). |
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Keywords: | |
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