A mechanism for reversible mesoscopic aggregation in liquid solutions
| Autor: | Ho Yin Chan, Vassiliy Lubchenko |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Ostwald ripening Materials science Science Nucleation General Physics and Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences 02 engineering and technology Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter Article General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Physics::Fluid Dynamics Coarse-grained models Computational biophysics 03 medical and health sciences symbols.namesake Metastability Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) Molecule lcsh:Science Computer Science::Databases Mesoscopic physics Condensed Matter - Materials Science Multidisciplinary Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics Drop (liquid) Internal pressure Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) General Chemistry 021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology 030104 developmental biology Chemical physics symbols Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) lcsh:Q 0210 nano-technology |
| Zdroj: | Nature Communications, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2019) Nature Communications |
| Popis: | We show systematically that a steady-state ensemble of mesoscopic inclusions of a solute-rich fluid can emerge in liquid solutions well outside the region of stability of the solute-rich phase. Unanticipated by conventional treatments, this type of reversible aggregation nonetheless can take place if the solute molecules bind transiently with each other to form long-lived complexes. The binding causes kinetic stabilization of inclusions of the solute-rich phase---within a substantial size range---so as to render the critical size for nucleation of the inclusions finite. Individual droplets nucleate and grow until they become mechanically unstable because of a concomitant drop in the internal pressure, the latter drop caused by the thermodynamic metastability of the solute-rich phase. At the same time, the {\em ensemble} of the droplets is steady-state on long times. In a freshly prepared solution, the ensemble is predicted to evolve similarly to the conventional Ostwald ripening, during which larger droplets grow at the expense of smaller droplets. The present mechanism is proposed to underlie the puzzling mesoscopic clusters observed in solutions of proteins and other molecules. submitted to Nature Materials |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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