How liquid-liquid phase separation induces active spreading.

ABSTRACT: The interplay between phase separation and wetting of multicomponent mixtures is ubiquitous in nature and technology and recently gained significant attention across scientific disciplines, due to the discovery of biomolecular condensates. It is well understood that sessile droplets, undergoing phase separation in a static wetting configuration, exhibit microdroplet nucleation at their contact lines, forming an oil ring during later stages. However, very little is known about the dynamic counterpart, when phase separation occurs in a nonequilibrium wetting configuration, i.e., spreading droplets. Here we show that liquid-liquid phase separation strongly couples to the spreading motion of three-phase contact lines. Thus, the classical Cox-Voinov law is not applicable anymore, because phase

SUBMITTER: Chao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9335212 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature