Experiment and simulation of multifractal growth of crystalline NaCl aggregates in aqueous gelatin medium

When a colloidal solution of NaCl in aqueous gelatin is allowed to dry, it forms an aggregate showing highly intricate ramified dendritic patterns with a 4-fold symmetry, interspersed between cubic crystals of macroscopic dimensions. The multifractal nature of these aggregates hint at inhomogeneous growth processes that come into play during the process of desiccation. In this paper we propose a simple growth model that is able to generate aggregates that have dimensions of multifractal spectrum very similar to the experimental samples. This makes our model a promising starting point to the understanding of drying colloidal gels.