Towards a phenomenological definition of the term 'gel'

K. Almdal, J. Dyre, S. Hvidt, O. Kramer

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    The term ‘gel’ is used so indiscriminately that it has become ambiguous. Existing definitions are reviewed, examples of unfortunate uses of the term are discussed, and important phenomenological characteristics of gels are identified. We propose that the term ‘gel’ should be limited to systems which fulfil the following phenomenological characteristics: (a) they consist of two or more components one of which is a liquid, present in substantial quantity and (b) they are soft, solid, or solid-like materials. We further propose a definition of the solid-like characteristics of gels in terms of the dynamic mechanical properties, viz. a storage modulus, G′(ω), which exhibits a pronounced plateau extending to times at least of the order of seconds and a loss modulus, G″(ω), which is considerably smaller thatn the storage modulus in the plateau region.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalPolymer Gels and Networks
    Volume1
    Issue number1
    Pages (from-to)5-17
    ISSN0966-7822
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1993

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