Related Experiment Videos
Effect of ordering on spinodal decomposition of liquid-crystal/polymer mixtures
A M Lapeña1, S C Glotzer, S A Langer
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1569, USA.
Abstract:
Partially phase-separated liquid-crystal/polymer dispersions display highly fibrillar domain morphologies that are dramatically different from the typical structures found in isotropic mixtures. To explain this, we numerically explore the coupling between phase ordering and phase-separation kinetics in model two-dimensional fluid mixtures phase separating into a nematic phase, rich in liquid crystal, coexisting with an isotropic phase, rich in polymer. We find that phase ordering can lead to fibrillar networks of the minority polymer-rich phase.