Phase separation in fluids with many interacting components
Abstract
Immiscible fluids are found everywhere—examples include vinaigrette and ouzo in the kitchen, multiphase hydrocarbon–water mixtures common in oil extraction, and in virtually all living things. Within the living cell, thousands of biomolecules organize into multiple coexisting liquid-like phases that enable diverse functions. Despite their ubiquity in nature and industry, how numerous interactions between components encode their macroscopic multiphase behavior remains poorly understood. We employ statistical physics approaches to reveal the emergent dynamical, compositional, and steady-state properties of coexisting phases in fluid mixtures with many randomly interacting components. Building on these findings, we demonstrate design strategies to encode linear or nonmonotonic scaling relationships between the number of phases and components and suggest active routes to tunably modify multiphase coexistence.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.2108551118
Entities
People
- Krishna Shrinivas
- Michael P. Brenner
Organizations
- Harvard University
- Office of Naval Research