F. Sciortino et al., INTERFERENCE OF PHASE-SEPARATION AND GELATION - A ZEROTH-ORDER KINETIC-MODEL, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 47(6), 1993, pp. 4615-4618
We propose a Ginzburg-Landau-type model to describe the kinetics of mi
xtures undergoing a sol-gel transition (nonconserved order parameter)
simultaneously with phase separation (conserved order parameter). We c
ompute the temporal development of the structure factor and determine
the wave vector q(max) at which the structure factor is maximal. We fi
nd that after a certain time t(f), q(max) saturates at a final value q
(f), and we calculate the temperature dependence of both t(f) and q(f)
. The predictions of this zeroth-order model agree remarkably well wit
h recent kinetic measurements in gelatin-water-methanol mixtures.