Paper on nucleation of chemically active droplets

Our paper on the “Nucleation of chemically active droplets” has been published in PRL. In this work spearheaded by Noah Ziethen, we wondered how chemical reactions affect the rate at which droplets emerge. Our numerical simulations and analytical theory indicate that reactions generally suppress nucleation when the dilute phase is stable. For example, biological cells can use reactions that modify proteins involved in phase separation to suppress biomolecular condensates.

The work builds on our established theories of active droplets and uses a surrogate equilibrium model to derive analytical results using classical nucleation theory. We summarize our results in an extended phase diagram, describing how reactions affect possible states.

Simulation of nucleation of an active droplet

Extended phase diagram summarizing the influence of driven chemical reactions