Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Recent experimental realizations of liquid-liquid phase separation of active liquid crystals have offered an insight into the interaction between phase separation, ubiquitous in soft matter and biology, and chaotic active flows. In this Letter, we use continuum theory to examine phase separation of an active liquid crystal and a passive fluid and report two new results. First, we provide an analytical derivation of the activity-induced suppression of the phase boundary of the coexistence region-a result first reported in simulations and experiments. We show that the shift in the critical point is a result of the balance between self-stirring active flows and phase-separating diffusive fluxes. Second, we show that this same balance is responsible for dramatically changing the morphology of the phase separated state, resulting in the emergence of a new mixed active phase consisting of a dynamical filamentous active network that invades the entire system area, trapping droplets of passive material. This structure exists even for very low volume fractions of active material. Our work provides an important step towards the goal of understanding how to use activity as a new handle for sculpting interfaces.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Institutions: University of California, Santa Barbara, Brandeis University
Language: English
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Johns Hopkins University, China Scholarship Council, University of California, Santa Barbara, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, California NanoSystems Institute
Awards: G1110399006, G1141670404, From Active to Smart Matter, G17160138, G2232042528, G2247171729, Bioinspired Soft Materials, G2730000833, G2760720504, MICROTUBULE-BASED THREE DIMENSIONAL ACTIVE MATTER, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at UCSB, G3349485200, G3400352658, G3845584892, G401861217, G4281768896, G5332583450, G7240839585, G7833242660, G8088400230, MRI: Acquisition of a High Performance Central Computing Facility at University of California Santa Barbara
OpenAlex ID: W4409125925