Speaker
Description
In recent years, many efforts have been devoted to characterising liquid mixtures composed of molecules that interact and undergo chemical reactions, such as the cell cytoplasm or pools of short polymers that mimic the primordial soup. In such mixtures, condensates that form via phase separation play a key role. Here, I review the theory of phase separation in the presence of chemical reactions among the mixture's components, focusing on reactions kept away from equilibrium by continuous turnover of chemical fuel. I first characterise a new class of out-of-equilibrium stationary states composed of spherical shells that have recently been observed in experiments using active coacervates. Then I describe emulsions composed of many chemically active droplets. In particular, I discuss which factors determine the size and scaling of active droplets, and which are the physical determinants of droplet ripening and droplet division.
