A new critical point and time dependence of bond formation probability in sol–gel transition: a Monte Carlo study in two dimension

In the sol–gel phase transitions of polymeric systems, gelation is generally being monitored against time t during in situ fluorescence experiments where the relation between bond formation probability p and t is unknown and has to be determined. In this study, the critical exponents β, γ and ρ of power law relations of the degree of polymerization (DPw), the gel fraction (G) and the radius of gyration (R) were obtained, using Monte Carlo simulations in two dimension, respectively. A new critical point, pm, was defined in order to calculate the critical exponents more accurately. The relation between p and t for four functional crosslinkers was examined and found to be linear at the critical region.