Relaxation fractal viscoelasticity

The power laws for viscoelastic spectra near the gel point presumably arise from the fractal scaling properties of gel clusters. Adolf and Martin (1990) have attempted to derive a value for the scaling exponent n from the universal scaling properties of percolation fractal aggregates near the gel point. Using Rouse theory for the dependence of the relaxation time on cluster molecular weight, they obtain n = D/ 2- - Df ) = 2/3, where Df = 2.5 is the fractal dimensionality of the clusters (see Table 5-1), and D = 3 is the dimensionality of... 

Note that power-law behaviour is prevalent at gelation. This has been proposed to be due to a fractal or self-similar character of the gel. Note that the exponent )f is termed the fractal dimension. For any three-dimensional structure D = 3) the exponent Df<3 (where Df < 3 indicates an open structure and Df= 3 indicates a dense strucmre). Also Muthu-kumar (Muthukumar and Winter, 1986, Muthukumar, 1989) and Takahashi et al. (1994) show explicitly the relationship between fractal dimension (Df) and power-law index of viscoelastic behaviour (n). Interestingly, more recent work (Altmann, 2002) has also shown a direct relationship between the power-law behaviour and the mobility of chain relaxations, which will be discussed further in Chapter 6. 

Analysis of the dynamical viscoelastic quantities shows that the relaxation spectrum H r) of the two-dimensional network goes as H(t) 1/r [65,68-70]. Hence 2-D networks do indeed show dynamical behavior intermediate between that of linear chains and that of 3-D networks. Moreover, in a fractal picture, square networks may be viewed as being fractals and as having a spectral dimension of 2. Now H(r) 1/t leads to an -behavior for the storage modulus G (a>), see Eig. 4, and to G(f) 1/t. 

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