Butterfly Patterns for Stretched Inhomogeneous Gel Networks using Large-Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

Large-scale coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of inhomogeneous gel networks were performed to investigate abnormal butterfly patterns in two-dimensional scattering. The networks were diamond lattice-based with distributions in the number of beads between the crosslink points. Remarkably, the results confirm that the abnormal butterfly pattern orig-inates from stronger inhomogeneity. For the examined systems, the range of scattering wavevector q for the normal butterfly pattern was markedly different from those for the abnormal butterfly patterns. The findings address an essential aspect of the discrepancy between theorical prediction and experimental observations.