Dynamic interplay between phase separation and wetting in a binary mixture confined in a one-dimensional capillary

Abstract

Here we demonstrate that the phase separation of a binary mixture confined in a capillary is strongly affected by wetting phenomena for all the compositions. Near a symmetric composition, the hydrodynamics unique to a bicontinuous pattern leads to the extremely quick formation of a macroscopic wetting layer. Then this layer configuration becomes unstable because of the Rayleigh-like instability and eventually a stable, bamboolike structure is found. This final structure is determined kinetically, but not thermodynamically. This is characteristic of a one-dimensional system with a conserved order parameter.