Effects of Reversible Chemical Reaction on Morphology and Domain Growth of Phase Separating Binary Mixtures with Viscosity Difference

Abstract

Summary: The effects of a reversible chemical reaction on morphology and dynamics of phase separating binary mixtures with viscosity difference are studied by numerically solving modified time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau and Navier-Stokes equations. Much more interesting morphologies are observed in the system due to the coupling of reversible chemical reaction and viscosity difference between two components. When the chemical reaction rate is relatively low, the impact of viscosity difference on morphologies is prominent, so that the resulting patterns are affected by both reversible chemical reaction and viscosity difference. However, increasing the chemical reaction rate weakens the impact of viscosity difference on morphologies. Similarly, increasing the chemical reaction rate also suppresses the effects of viscosity difference on domain growth dynamics, which is prominent at the early stage of phase separation when the chemical reaction rate is relatively low. For both cases with relatively low and high chemical reaction rates, the average domain size eventually attains an equilibrium value due to the competition between the mixing of reversible chemical reaction and demixing of phase separation.