Nonequilibrium Structure during Phase Separation

Abstract

To establish the nature of the early-stage structures that occur during phase separation, we studied solutions of a nonionic surfactant micellar solution (${\mathrm{C}}_{12}$${\mathrm{E}}_{6}$ in ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}$O). We report the existence of long-lived nonequilibrium structures during shallow quenches along the critical isochore. The power-law scattering profile of these structures is consistent with ramified clusters with a fractal dimension $D=1.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$.