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Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Interfaces

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Thermodynamics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2018) | Viewed by 15678

Special Issue Editor

Laboratory of Reactive Multiphase Flow, Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, L.go Lazzarino, 56126 Pisa, Italy
Interests: modeling of multiphase flows and phase transition processes; microfluidics; effective properties of complex systems; liquid-liquid extraction processes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to invite you to submit comprehensive overviews and surveys, as well as original papers, on the general subject of irreversible thermodynamics of interfaces. As you know, the macroscopic properties and dynamic behavior of soft multiphase materials are often significantly affected by the thermodynamic and transport properties of their interfaces. This is particularly true in materials with high surface-to-volume ratios, such as emulsions, foam, or thin liquid films, which are ubiquitous in nature and in our everyday life. Here, surface tension, Marangoni stresses, bending rigidity, or surface rheological properties determine the overall macroscopic dynamics, thus that such multiphase materials can be considered Interface Dominated Systems (IDS).

The aim of this Special Issue is to encourage researchers to present original and recent developments on the application of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to interfaces and, in general, on the properties of IDS, thus providing a global view of the research challenges and opportunities in this emerging area.

Prof. Dr. Roberto Mauri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Interface Properties

  • Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics

  • Gibbs Dividing Surface

  • Excess Properties

  • Phase Field Method

  • Korteweg Stresses

  • Reciprocal Principles

  • Surface Rheology

  • Droplet Coalescence and Breakup

  • Phase Separation and Mixing

Published Papers (4 papers)

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20 pages, 2522 KiB  
Article
Interfacial Properties of Active-Passive Polymer Mixtures
by Jan Smrek and Kurt Kremer
Entropy 2018, 20(7), 520; https://doi.org/10.3390/e20070520 - 10 Jul 2018
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3486
Abstract
Active matter consists of particles that dissipate energy, from their own sources, in the form of mechanical work on their surroundings. Recent interest in active-passive polymer mixtures has been driven by their relevance in phase separation of (e.g., transcriptionally) active and inactive (transcriptionally [...] Read more.
Active matter consists of particles that dissipate energy, from their own sources, in the form of mechanical work on their surroundings. Recent interest in active-passive polymer mixtures has been driven by their relevance in phase separation of (e.g., transcriptionally) active and inactive (transcriptionally silent) DNA strands in nuclei of living cells. In this paper, we study the interfacial properties of the phase separated steady states of the active-passive polymer mixtures and compare them with equilibrium phase separation. We model the active constituents by assigning them stronger-than-thermal fluctuations. We demonstrate that the entropy production is an accurate indicator of the phase transition. We then construct phase diagrams and analyze kinetic properties of the particles as a function of the distance from the interface. Studying the interface fluctuations, we find that they follow the capillary waves spectrum. This allows us to establish a mechanistic definition of the interfacial stiffness and its dependence on the relative level of activity with respect to the passive constituents. We show how the interfacial width depends on the activity ratio and comment on the finite size effects. Our results highlight similarities and differences of the non-equilibrium steady states with an equilibrium phase separated polymer mixture with a lower critical solution temperature. We present several directions in which the non-equilibrium system can be studied further and point out interesting observations that indicate general principles behind the non-equilibrium phase separation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Interfaces)
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12 pages, 950 KiB  
Article
Dissolution or Growth of a Liquid Drop via Phase-Field Ternary Mixture Model Based on the Non-Random, Two-Liquid Equation
by Andrea Lamorgese and Roberto Mauri
Entropy 2018, 20(2), 125; https://doi.org/10.3390/e20020125 - 14 Feb 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3700
Abstract
We simulate the diffusion-driven dissolution or growth of a single-component liquid drop embedded in a continuous phase of a binary liquid. Our theoretical approach follows a diffuse-interface model of partially miscible ternary liquid mixtures that incorporates the non-random, two-liquid (NRTL) equation as a [...] Read more.
We simulate the diffusion-driven dissolution or growth of a single-component liquid drop embedded in a continuous phase of a binary liquid. Our theoretical approach follows a diffuse-interface model of partially miscible ternary liquid mixtures that incorporates the non-random, two-liquid (NRTL) equation as a submodel for the enthalpic (so-called excess) component of the Gibbs energy of mixing, while its nonlocal part is represented based on a square-gradient (Cahn-Hilliard-type modeling) assumption. The governing equations for this phase-field ternary mixture model are simulated in 2D, showing that, for a single-component drop embedded in a continuous phase of a binary liquid (which is highly miscible with either one component of the continuous phase but is essentially immiscible with the other), the size of the drop can either shrink to zero or reach a stationary value, depending on whether the global composition of the mixture is within the one-phase region or the unstable range of the phase diagram. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Interfaces)
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1734 KiB  
Article
Formation of Photo-Responsive Liquid Crystalline Emulsion by Using Microfluidics Device
by Yoshiharu Dogishi, Shun Endo, Woon Yong Sohn and Kenji Katayama
Entropy 2017, 19(12), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/e19120669 - 06 Dec 2017
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4756
Abstract
Photo-responsive double emulsions made of liquid crystal (LC) were prepared by a microfluidic device, and the light-induced processes were studied. The phase transition was induced from the center of the topological defect for an emulsion made of (N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline (MBBA), and strange [...] Read more.
Photo-responsive double emulsions made of liquid crystal (LC) were prepared by a microfluidic device, and the light-induced processes were studied. The phase transition was induced from the center of the topological defect for an emulsion made of (N-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-butylaniline (MBBA), and strange texture change was observed for an emulsion made of 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) doped with azobenzene. The results suggest that there are defect-involved processes in the phase change of LC double emulsions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Interfaces)
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537 KiB  
Letter
Molecular Conformational Manifolds between Gas-Liquid Interface and Multiphasic
by Rasoul Nasiri and Kai Hong Luo
Entropy 2017, 19(12), 695; https://doi.org/10.3390/e19120695 - 19 Dec 2017
Viewed by 3176
Abstract
The analysis of conformational changes of hydrocarbon molecules is imperative in the prediction of their transport properties in different phases, such as evaporation/condensation coefficients (β) in the gas-liquid interface and evaporation rates of fuel droplets (k) in multiphases. In [...] Read more.
The analysis of conformational changes of hydrocarbon molecules is imperative in the prediction of their transport properties in different phases, such as evaporation/condensation coefficients (β) in the gas-liquid interface and evaporation rates of fuel droplets (k) in multiphases. In this letter, we analyze the effects of entropic contributions ( T Δ S e v ( T ) ) to Δ G e v ( T ) during the evaporation/condensation of chain conformers at the interface with a modified version of the solvation model SMD/ωB97X-D/cc-pVTZ in which the temperature dependency of surface tension and the interfacial flow density of the conformers is taken into account. The evaporation/condensation coefficient (β) and evaporation rate (k) are respectively calculated using the statistical associating fluid theory (SAFT) and a combined quantum-classical reaction rate theory named quantum transition state theory-classical kinetic gas theory (QTST-CKGT). The detailed analyses show the importance of internal entropic states over the interfacial layer induced by meso-confinement phenomena in the very vicinity of fuel droplets surfaces. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics of Interfaces)
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