Fig. 3: Mechanism of association-dissociation hierarchical dynamics for reversible dynamic gels with physical crosslinks. | Nature Communications

Fig. 3: Mechanism of association-dissociation hierarchical dynamics for reversible dynamic gels with physical crosslinks.

From: Universal law of hierarchical dynamics in gels arising from confluence of local physically dynamic bonds

Fig. 3

a Free energy profile of the association of two monomers as a function of separation distance. ϵ and ϵa are the free energy gain and free energy barrier for pair formation. b Monomers involved in dynamic crosslinks and monomers free from crosslinks within the gel strands are schematically illustrated. The strand with m number of monomers and end-to-end distance Xm (t) changes to m’ and Xm’(t + τb) after an elapse of lifetime τb of a physical bond, causing the perpetual change in the population of polydisperse strands.

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