Power-law coarsening in network-forming phase separation governed by mechanical relaxation

A space-spanning network structure is a basic morphology in phase separation of soft and biomatter, alongside a droplet one. Despite its fundamental and industrial importance, the physical principle underlying such network-forming phase separation remains elusive. Here, we study the network coarsening during gas-liquid-type phase separation of colloidal suspensions and pure fluids, by hydrodynamic and molecular dynamics simulations, respectively. For both, the detailed analyses of the pore sizes and strain field reveal the self-similar network coarsening and the unconventional power-law growth more than a decade according to ℓ ∝ t^1/2, where ℓ is the characteristic pore size and t is the elapsed time. We find that phase-separation dynamics is controlled by mechanical relaxation of the network-forming dense phase, whose limiting process is permeation flow of the solvent for colloidal suspensions and heat transport for pure fluids. This universal coarsening law would contribute to the fundamental physical understanding of network-forming phase separation.