Dynamics of phase-separated fluids under external fields

Abstract

Phase separation in external fields has attracted much attention recently. The reason is twofold. Since kinetics of phase separation and morphology of growing domains can be controlled by external fields, it is of technological importance. The other is that existence of mesoscale domains causes curious dynamical properties in fields, which provides us with a fundamental statistical dynamic problem. One example is a phase separation of binary fluids under shear flow. Phase-separated domains are deformed under the field, which causes burst, fusion, and reconnection of domains so that extra energy dissipation occurs in these processes. Because of this large deformation of domains, the system exhibits quite unusual rheological behavior. The kinetics of phase separation of binary fluids is also influenced by an external electric field when the new phases have different dielectric constants. Deformation and interaction of domains in an electric field are investigated by means of an interfacial approach.