Interfacial effects determine nonequilibrium phase behaviors in chemically driven fluids.

ABSTRACT: Coupling between chemical fuel consumption and phase separation can lead to condensation at a nonequilibrium steady state, resulting in phase behaviors that are not described by equilibrium thermodynamics. Theoretical models of such "chemically driven fluids" typically invoke near-equilibrium approximations at small length scales. However, because dissipation occurs due to both molecular-scale chemical reactions and mesoscale diffusive transport, it has remained unclear which properties of phase-separated reaction-diffusion systems can be assumed to be at an effective equilibrium. Here, we use microscopic simulations to show that mesoscopic fluxes are dependent on nonequilibrium fluctuations at phase-separated interfaces. We further develop a first-principles theory to predict nonequilibri

SUBMITTER: Cho Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12318204 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature