Controlling liquid-liquid phase behavior with an active fluid

Understand

Demixing of binary liquids is a ubiquitous transition, which is explained using a well-established thermodynamic formalism that requires equality of intensive thermodynamics parameters across the phase boundaries.

• Demixing transitions also occur when binary fluid mixtures are driven away from equilibrium, for example, by external shear flow.
• Predicting demixing transition under non-equilibrium non-potential conditions remains, however, a challenge.
• We drive liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of attractive DNA nanostar molecules away from equilibrium using an internally driven microtubule-based active fluid.