Kinetic Gelation

When gelation occurs due to the growth of linear chain molecules that reticulate the universality of the gelation transition does not completely follow the universality class of percolation.

With D. Stauffer and D. Landau we proposed an irreversibel growth model for kinetic gelation as published in a letter in Physical Review Letters Vol.49, 412-415 (1982) showing for the first time these differences between gelation and percolation in the ratio of the critical amplitudes. Many more papers followed going into details and comparing to experiments. Much insight could be gained by a simpler model based on percolation with random interactions as published in Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 35, p.3661 (1987).