title: Coalescence-induced coalescence and dimensional crossover during the phase separation in ternary surfactant/polymer/water mixtures.
abstract: We studied the separation process in the ternary mixtures of nonionic surfactant (C(12)E(6), hexaethylene glycol monododecyl ether), polymer (PEG = poly(ethylene glycol)), and water. The separation process of PEG/water rich domains from the surfactant rich matrix was observed by the optical microscopy. From the morphological analysis, we determined the size of the domains as a function of time. On this basis we identified a dominating mechanisms of domains growth, that is the coalescence-induced coalescence mechanism. The coalescence (collision) event of two droplets induces a flow or a change of concentration distribution around droplets which pushes other droplets together inducing further growth. We also observed the evaporation-condensation (Lifshitz-Slyozov) mechanism of growth, but it did not affect the growth of large domains appreciably. We determined two regimes of the coalescence-induced coalescence associated with the dimensionality of the system. When the domains were smaller or comparable in size to the sample thickness we observe a three-dimensional growth. When the domains became larger than the sample thickness, a two-dimensional growth was observed. In the first regime, the size of the domains, L(t), grew linearly with t, while in the second regime, L(t) approximately t(0.3). In the binary, surfactant/water system, water domains grew by the geometrical coalescence-induced coalescence as L(t) approximately t in three dimensions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Iryna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Demyanchuk
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Staniszewski
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hołyst