Liquid-Gas Equilibrium in Nanoparticle Network-Forming Systems

Mechanisms of phase formation in solutions of nano- and microparticles with anisotropic effective interactions have actively been discussed in the last years. Possible types of miscibility gaps for colloidal suspensions with anisotropic interaction have been analyzed within a statistical model including the variation of the reactivity of particles without a priori assumptions on the structure of clusters. It has been shown that the variation of model parameters allows the description of all observed miscibility gaps within a unified formalism. In particular, diagrams with the homogeneity region at zero temperature, closed loops, a lower critical point, and infinite immiscibility corridors have been obtained. Some types of diagrams have been described for the first time. It has been shown that a variable reactivity of particles is a key factor determining the type of phase diagram.