Molecular dynamics simulations of droplet fusion reveals shear thinning

Abstract

Recent experiments have shown that biomolecular condensates are viscoelastic rather than purely viscous. One possible consequence, from both experimental and theoretical studies [1, 2], is that condensates exhibit shear thickening or shear thinning, i.e., with effective viscosity higher or lower than the zero-shear viscosity. To gain deeper physical insight into the effects of viscoelasticity on condensate dynamics, here we carried out molecular dynamics simulations of droplet fusion. The droplets were formed from phase separation of Lennard-Jones particles or chains.