Designing the Morphology of Separated Phases in Multicomponent Liquid Mixtures
Sheng Mao, Milena Chakraverti-Wuerthwein, Hunter Gaudio, Andrej Košmrlj
Abstract
Phase separation of multicomponent liquid mixtures plays an integral part in many processes ranging from industry to cellular biology. In many cases the morphology of coexisting phases is crucially linked to the function of the separated mixture, yet it is unclear what determines the morphology when multiple phases are present. We developed a graph theory approach to predict the topology of coexisting phases from a given set of surface energies, enumerate all topologically distinct morphologies, and reverse engineer conditions for surface energies that produce the target morphology.
Topics & Concepts
Morphology (biology)RangingSurface (topology)Function (biology)Materials sciencePhase (matter)Topology (electrical circuits)Statistical physicsChemical physicsComputer sciencePhysicsMathematicsCombinatoricsGeometryQuantum mechanicsGeologyTelecommunicationsEvolutionary biologyPaleontologyBiologyInnovative Microfluidic and Catalytic Techniques InnovationProcess Optimization and IntegrationCrystallization and Solubility Studies