SKM 2023 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 34: Wetting, Droplets and Microfluidics I (joint session DY/CPP)
CPP 34.2: Talk
Wednesday, March 29, 2023, 10:15–10:30, ZEU 148
Chemically Active Wetting — •Susanne Liese1, Xueping Zhao2, Frank Jülicher3, and Christoph Weber1 — 1Universität Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany — 2Xiamen University, Xiamen, China — 3MPI/PKS, Dresden, Germany
In living cells, wetting of condensed phases on membrane surfaces provides a mechanism for positioning biomolecules. Biomolecules are also able to bind to such membrane surfaces. In living cells, this binding is often chemically active as it is kept out of equilibrium by the supply of energy and matter. Here, we investigate how active binding on membranes affects the wetting of condensates. To this end, we derive the non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory of active wetting. We find that active binding significantly alters the wetting behavior leading to non-equilibrium steady states with condensate shapes reminiscent of a fried egg or a mushroom. We further show that such condensate shapes are determined by the strength of active binding in the dense and dilute phases, respectively. Strikingly, such condensate shapes can be explained by an electrostatic analogy where binding sinks and sources correspond to electrostatic dipoles along the triple line. Through this analogy, we can understand how fluxes at the triple line control the three-dimensional shape of condensates.