Related papers: Surface wetting by kinetic control of liquid-liqui…
We have studied the breakup and subsequent fluid flow in very thin films of partially wetting liquid on solid substrates, using molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid is made of short chain molecules interacting with Lennard-Jones…
Phase separation and transitions among different molecular states are ubiquitous in living cells. Such transitions can be governed by local equilibrium thermodynamics or by active processes controlled by biological fuel. It remains largely…
Liquid-liquid phase separation of aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) is fundamental across physical and biological sciences. While well understood for passive systems, how this process is regulated by active agents such as motile bacteria…
When a solid plate is withdrawn from a partially wetting liquid, a liquid layer dewets the moving substrate. High-speed imaging reveals alternating thin and thick regions in the entrained layer in the transverse direction at steady state.…
We report on the onset of fluid entrainment when a contact line is forced to advance over a dry solid of arbitrary wettability. We show that entrainment occurs at a critical advancing speed beyond which the balance between capillary,…
Microstructured surfaces that control the direction of liquid transport are not only ubiquitous in nature, but they are also central to technological processes such as fog/water harvesting, oil-water separation, and surface lubrication.…
Self-propelled particles accumulate on repulsive barriers in so-called active wetting, but the relationship between this process and equilibrium wetting remains unclear. Using an exact (noiseless) hydrodynamic framework for an active…
Phase separation within polymer networks plays a central role in shaping the structure and mechanics of both synthetic materials and living cells, including the formation of biomolecular condensates within cytoskeletal networks. Previous…
Surface creasing in swelling polymer gels is commonly attributed to compressive strain or interlayer mismatch, yet its general control remains unclear. Here we show that solvent polymerization degree $N_{\rm s}$ provides an independent…
Liquid-liquid phase separation is important across biology, physics, and materials science. Although usually studied at equilibrium, active components - such as motor proteins, enzymes, and synthetic microswimmers - are increasingly…
Biomolecular condensates are liquid- or gel-like droplets of proteins and nucleic acids formed at least in part through liquid-liquid phase separation. Condensates enable diverse functions of cells and the pathogens that infect them,…
A liquid poured from a curved solid surface can separate as a steady jet or sheet, or trickle down along the solid surface. It was shown by Duez et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 084503 (2010)] that surface wettability controls the separation…
Living and engineered systems rely on the stable coexistence of two interspersed liquid phases. Yet surface tension drives their complete separation. Here we show that stable droplets of uniform and tuneable size can be produced through…
The surface directed spinodal decomposition of a binary liquid confined inside cylindrical pore is investigated using molecular dynamics simulation. One component of the liquid wets the pore surface while the other remains neutral. A…
The interplay between phase separation and wetting of multicomponent mixtures is ubiquitous in nature and technology and recently gained significant attention across scientific disciplines, due to the discovery of biomolecular condensates.…
We extend the Cahn-Landau-de Gennes mean field theory of binary mixtures to understand the wetting thermodynamics of a three phase system, that is in contact with an external surface which prefers one of the phases. We model the system…
The main causes of energy dissipation in micro- and nano-scale wetting are viscosity and liquid-solid friction localized in the three-phase contact line region. Theoretical models predict the contactline friction coefficient to correlate…
Living cells are characterized by the micrometric confinement of various macromolecules at high concentrations. Using droplets containing binary polymer blends as artificial cells, we previously showed that cell-sized confinement causes…
We present in this Letter a free-energy approach to the dynamics of a fluid near a nanostructured surface. The model accounts both for the static phase equilibrium in the vicinity of the surface (wetting angles, Cassie-Wenzel transition)…
We present a field theory to describe the composition of a surface spontaneously exchanging matter with its bulk environment. By only assuming matter conservation in the system, we show with extensive numerical simulations that, depending…