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Updated: Aug 25, 2025

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions
Published on: April 19, 2018
Thermodynamics predicts a stable microdroplet phase in polymer-gel mixtures undergoing elastic phase separation
Subhadip Biswas1, Biswaroop Mukherjee1, Buddhapriya Chakrabarti1
1Department of Physics, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK. b.chakrabarti@sheffield.ac.uk.
Abstract:
We study the thermodynamics of binary mixtures with the volume fraction of the minority component less than the amount required to form a flat interface and show that the surface tension dominated equilibrium phase of the mixture forms a single macroscopic droplet. Elastic interactions in gel-polymer mixtures stabilize a phase with multiple droplets. Using a mean-field free energy we compute the droplet size as a function of the interfacial tension, Flory parameter, and elastic moduli of the gel. Our results illustrate the role of elastic interactions in dictating the phase behavior of biopolymers undergoing liquid-liquid phase separation.
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