Temporal evolution of self-organization of gelatin molecules and clusters on quartz surface

Abstract

Aqueous gelatin solutions when spread on hydrophilic substrates form self-organized structures where the gelatin molecules and clusters are arranged as self-similar objects giving a mass fractal dimension df=1.67 and 1.72 for solutions made with KCl and NaCl salts as estimated from atomic force microscopic studies. The dehydration driven self-organization of particles changed the df values to 1.78 and 1.81, respectively, after 24 h. This further changed to 1.83 and 1.85 after a time lapse of 10 days. The dynamics of formation of these structures are modeled through spin-exchange kinetics in the nonequilibrium steady state regime in order to understand their complex behavior. Kawasaki spin exchange dynamics has been applied to a diffusion limited aggregation type fractal object, and the growth of the domains was observed by minimizing the free energy. The fractal dimension of such a system changed from 1.70 to 1.82 which inferred the loss of fractal behavior and the generation of a more compact object. The experimentally observed temporal evolution of these complex structures could be adequately described through the results obtained from the computer simulation data.