Phase Separation Boundary Research Articles

Determination of phase diagram of polyolefin blend nanocomposites by rheological approach: Influence of rheological method and nanoparticles on shifting the phase transition boundary

AbstractIn this research, by using different rheometric methods, the temperatures of phase transition for upper critical solution temperature phase diagram of polyethylene (PE) and poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl acetate) (EVA) blends and filled systems with organically‐modified nanoclay (ONC) were measured. Since the PE/EVA‐based mixtures are widely applied in the film and foam industries, the evaluation of the phase behavior of these mixtures is of great importance. Microscopic observations show that ONC nanoparticles have a compatibilization role on the biphasic microstructure of PE/EVA. ONC nanoparticles have a remarkable impact on the viscoelastic properties of the EVA phase, leading to a reduction in the asymmetry of the viscoelastic properties of the two polymeric phases. The findings of this work focused on the isochronal dynamic temperature sweep tests on the well‐mixed and phase‐separated nanofiller‐filled systems with different cooling/heating rates indicated that these series of experiments did not have the necessary efficiency to determine the phase separation boundary and spinodal temperatures in thermodynamically equilibrium conditions. By using Han plot and dynamic temperature sweep tests at the minimum possible heating rate, 0.25 K/min, it was proved that by adding nanoparticles to PE/EVA blends, the area of well‐mixed region of the phase diagram did not show a significant increment. The pinning effects of nanoparticles on the polymeric chains and correspondingly, the reduction of molecular dynamics mainly affect the phase separation phenomenon.

ELECTROCHEMICAL PRODUCTION OF TUNGSTEN: STATUS AND PROSPECTS

An overview of studies of the electroche­mical reduction of tungsten compounds of different composition in various reaction media is presented. It is shown that among the variety of existing scientific and technical methods for obtaining tungsten, there are attractive prospects for the creation and development of a new industrial process that would ensure the direct electrochemical release of oxygen from its oxygen-containing compounds into molten mixtures based on chloride and calcium oxide. This scientific and technical solution is known in the literature as the FFC Cambridge process (FFC process).In contrast to the known methods of electrochemical reduction of tungsten compounds, this process allows the reduction of oxygen-containing tungsten compounds in the solid state and does not depend on the course of acid-base equilibria at the electrode/electrolyte phase separation boundary. The most favorable conditions for the reduction of oxygen-containing tungsten compounds are provided by electrolysis using a liquid gallium cathode in both galvanostatic and potentiostatic modes, and it is advisable to use the initial tungsten compounds in a finely dispersed state. The electrochemical reduction of tungsten trioxide in thee utectic melt of sodium and calcium chlorides occurs through the intermediate stage of calcium tungstate formation, so it is advisable to use CaWO4 instead of WO3 as the starting compound for reduction. Electrochemical reduction on a liquid gallium cathode in a molten eutectic mixture of sodium and calcium chlorides allows obtaining highly dispersed tungsten powder (11–35 nm) of high purity (99.9%) with a degree of extraction of at least 90.0% from both tungsten trioxide and from calcium tungstate. In addition, in this way it is possible to obtain not only pure tungsten, but also metal alloys and composites based on it.

Ternary Mixtures of Hard Spheres and Their Multiple Separated Phases

We study the liquid phase behavior of ternary mixtures of monodisperse hard spheres in solution. The interactions are modeled in terms of the second virial coefficient and can be additive hard sphere (HS) or non-additive hard sphere (NAHS) interactions. We give the set of equations that defines the phase diagram for mixtures of three components. We calculate the theoretical liquid–liquid phase separation boundary for two-phase separation (the binodal) and, if applicable, the three-phase boundary, as well as the plait points and the spinodal. The sizes of the three components are fixed. The first component (A) is the smallest one, the second component (B) is four times the size of the smallest component, and the third (C) component is three times the size of the smallest one. The interaction between the first two components is fixed, and this AB sub-mixture shows phase separation. The interactions of component C with the other two components are varied. Component C can be compatible or incompatible with components A and B. Depending on the compatibility of the components, the phase diagram is altered. The addition of the third component has an influence on the phase boundary, plait points, stability region, fractionation, and volume ratio between the different phases. When all sub-mixtures (AB, AC, and BC) show phase separation, a three-phase system becomes possible when the incompatibility among all components is high enough. The position and size of the three-phase region is dependent on the interactions between the different sub-mixtures. We study the fractionation off all components depending on specific parent concentrations.

Characteristics of mucous-forming polysaccharides extracted from flax seeds

The research used the seeds of long flax of the "Vruchy" variety and oil-curly flax of the "Original" variety. To extract mucus, whole flax seeds were hydrated for 3 hours. in tap water, at a ratio of 1:20 and a temperature of 18 – 20 °C with constant stirring with a magnetic stirrer. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of temperature and duration of extraction on the yield of mucilaginous polysaccharides in aqueous solution from flaxseed. Change range: the temperature is selected in the range from 0 °С to 100 °С with a step of 20 °С; with a duration, ranging from 10 min to 140 min in 10 min increments. The yield of polysaccharides from flax seeds was determined for each combination of controlled factors. It was established that in the first 10 – 20 min. there is an increase in the yield of polysaccharides and the rate slows over time. For 90 min. equilibrium occurs at a temperature of 80 °C. This period of the process is optimal for the extraction of mucilage-forming polysaccharides from flaxseed. The mass of the extracted polysaccharides, from the mass of the seeds after a time of 95 min was 5.74%, and 6.00% at a temperature of 80 °С. A package of applied statistical programs was employed during the research to process the experimental data. A mathematical model of the process of extracting mucus-forming polysaccharides in an aqueous solution of flax seeds was built using regression analysis methods. The obtained regression equations determined the optimal regimes of the sought values in terms of temperature (80 – 85 °C), time (85 – 90 min) and conducted in compliance with the prescribed amount of water of 200 cm3. Within 10 – 20 min the formation of a transparent gel capsule around the flax with a phase separation boundary under seed contact with water, which does not change further. This indicates the completion of the hydration process.

Configurational temperature in active matter. II. Quantifying the deviation from thermal equilibrium.

This paper proposes using the configurational temperature T_{conf} for quantifying how far an active-matter system is from thermal equilibrium. We measure this "distance" by the ratio of the systemic temperature T_{s} to T_{conf}, where T_{s} is the canonical-ensemble temperature for which the average potential energy is equal to that of the active-matter system. T_{conf} is "local" in the sense that it is the average of a function, which depends only on how the potential energy varies in the vicinity of a given configuration. In contrast, T_{s} is a global quantity. The quantity T_{s}/T_{conf} is straightforward to evaluate in a computer simulation; equilibrium simulations in conjunction with a single steady-state active-matter configuration are enough to determine T_{s}/T_{conf}. We validate the suggestion that T_{s}/T_{conf} quantifies the deviation from thermal equilibrium by data for the radial distribution function of the 3D Kob-Andersen and 2D Yukawa active-matter models with active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and active Brownian Particle dynamics. Moreover, we show that T_{s}/T_{conf}, structure, and dynamics of the homogeneous phase are all approximately invariant along the motility-induced phase separation boundary in the phase diagram of the 2D Yukawa model. The measure T_{s}/T_{conf} is not limited to active matter and can be used for quantifying how far any system involving a potential-energy function, e.g., a driven Hamiltonian system, is from thermal equilibrium.

Molecular dynamics simulation of the Ni – FLiNaK interface: adsorption layers as origin of metal passivity

The method of classical molecular dynamics was used to study the Ni (solid) – FliNaK (melt) phase separation boundary at temperatures of 800 K, 1000K , and 1200 K. An ab initio-based pairwise model is developed to describe the interactions that take place at the Ni – FLiNaK interface. It was shown that at temperatures of 800 K and 1000 K, lithium and fluorine ions are predominantly adsorbed on the nickel surface in the form of a two-dimensional ordered structure. Such a dense layer prevents the dissolution of nickel and the metal solid has no defects in the surface layer. However, at a temperature of 1200 K the structure of the adsorption layer is noticeably disturbed with the partial replacement of lithium ions by sodium ones. Along with higher temperature, this leads to the formation of point defects and degradation of the surface layers of the nickel crystal lattice.

Intracellular phase separation of globular proteins facilitated by short cationic peptides

Phase separation provides intracellular organization and underlies a variety of cellular processes. These biomolecular condensates exhibit distinct physical and material properties. Current strategies for engineering condensate formation include using intrinsically disordered domains and altering protein surface charge by chemical supercharging or site-specific mutagenesis. We propose adding to this toolbox designer peptide tags that provide several potential advantages for engineering protein phase separation in bacteria. Herein, we demonstrate the use of short cationic peptide tags for sequestration of proteins of interest into bacterial condensates and provide a foundational study for their development as tools for condensate engineering. Using a panel of GFP variants, we demonstrate how cationic tag and globular domain charge contribute to intracellular phase separation in E. coli and observe that the tag can affect condensate disassembly at a given net charge near the phase separation boundary. We showcase the broad applicability of these tags by appending them onto enzymes and demonstrating that the sequestered enzymes remain catalytically active.

Towards Predicting Partitioning of Enzymes between Macromolecular Phases: Effects of Polydispersity on the Phase Behavior of Nonadditive Hard Spheres in Solution.

The ability to separate enzymes, or cells or viruses, from a mixture is important and can be realized by the incorporation of the mixture into a macromolecular solution. This incorporation may lead to a spontaneous phase separation, with one phase containing the majority of one of the species of interest. Inspired by this phenomenon, we studied the theoretical phase behavior of a model system composed of an asymmetric binary mixture of hard spheres, of which the smaller component was monodisperse and the larger component was polydisperse. The interactions were modeled in terms of the second virial coefficient and could be additive hard sphere (HS) or nonadditive hard sphere (NAHS) interactions. The polydisperse component was subdivided into two subcomponents and had an average size ten or three times the size of the monodisperse component. We gave the set of equations that defined the phase diagram for mixtures with more than two components in a solvent. We calculated the theoretical liquid–liquid phase separation boundary for the two-phase separation (the binodal) and three-phase separation, the plait point, and the spinodal. We varied the distribution of the polydisperse component in skewness and polydispersity, and we varied the nonadditivity between the subcomponents as well as between the main components. We compared the phase behavior of the polydisperse mixtures with binary monodisperse mixtures for the same average size and binary monodisperse mixtures for the same effective interaction. We found that when the compatibility between the polydisperse subcomponents decreased, the three-phase separation became possible. The shape and position of the phase boundary was dependent on the nonadditivity between the subcomponents as well as their size distribution. We conclude that it is the phase enriched in the polydisperse component that demixes into an additional phase when the incompatibility between the subcomponents increases.

Density fluctuations of two-dimensional active-passive mixtures

Dimension-dependent giant density fluctuations are a typical feature of active matter systems. In this work, we study the density fluctuation in two-dimensional mixtures of active and passive particles by Brownian dynamics simulations. The boundary of motility-induced phase separation is determined by the transition from unimodal to bimodal density distribution. A rapid increase of the fluctuation exponent near the boundary of phase separation in the plane of density and Péclet number was observed. When phase separation occurs, the fluctuation exponent is an approximate constant of

Experimental and theoretical studies on the operating parameters of hydromechanical drilling

Purpose. To analyse certain complex components of the rock breaking act during the well construction stipulated by the design features of the technical means of hydromechanical drilling and diversity of manifestations of hydraulic and physicochemical properties of the activated circulation medium. Methodology. Physicochemical parameters of the process of active substance adsorption from the water solutions on the rock surfaces were studied in terms of their disperse material by identifying optimal ratio in the solid phase particles volume of the activated solution group with the recording of time interval of the adsorption equilibrium establishment. Features of bottomhole processes in terms of the operating modernized facilities of hydromechanical drilling were considered involving up-to-date methods of analytical analysis and experimental-laboratory studies, i.e. by using certain techniques of mathematical and physical modelling, methods for processing and interpretation of the research results by means of SolidWorks, STATGRAPHICS, D, and control-and-measuring equipment and materials. Findings. The peculiarities of the combined hydromechanical drilling technique have been analysed from the viewpoint of the creation of the most efficient conditions of bottomhole rock breaking. Since a considerable degree of the development of breaking processes is the practically proved factor of hydromechanical drilling, the rationalization and intensification of those processes may be achieved by means of controlled physicochemical effect of the surface active medium. The experimental study was carried out to analyse the directedness of the development and results of surface interaction adsorption within the boundary of phase separation as the main factor of intensification of the rock mass breaking. A comparative analysis was performed concerning the surface activity of the corresponding substances that differ in their schemes of dissociation in a water solution whose properties are to be corrected additionally to make them close to the ones peculiar for natural drill muds. Positive influence of the adsorption phenomenon on the results of contact interaction of breaking elements of hydromechanical facilities was examined; this phenomenon is shown in the decelerated wear of metal surfaces. Originality. Useful influence of the physicochemical properties of the substances under consideration decreases beginning from the ionogenic anion-active sulfonol towards the ionogenic cation-active katapin K and to the non-ionogenic substance OP-10 (-10). However, in terms of combining the compositions of the mentioned substances, it can be strengthened additionally. Practical value. The indicated laboratory and experimental studies are the basic ones to design the mode parameters of the washing programme for a hydromechanical drilling well; they belong to the main output data used while substantiating the design and technical-technological parameters of the modernized pellet impact devices.

STEREOSELECTIVITY IN THE REACTIONS OF PHENOLYSIS OF CYCLIC PHOSPHASENES UNDER CONDITIONS OF TRANSPHASE CATALYSIS

The reactions of phenolysis of cyclophos­phazenes, leading to the formation of mono­aryl oxide derivatives with an excess of the substrate, were studied. The interest in this reaction is dictated by the practical value of the reaction products, which are easily formed under the conditions of transphase catalysis, and also by the fact that the studied regula­rities of phenolysis can extend to a significant spectrum of transphase nucleophilic substitution reactions. The general regularities of the transphase reaction of phosphazenes phenolysis were established by the example of the interaction of 4-nitrophenol with a phosphornitrile chloride trimer in a two-phase system. It was shown that the topology of the transphase chemical interaction is influenced by the same factors as the limiting stage, and therefore, by varying the ratio of lipophilicity and nucleophilicity of the transphase reagent, one can purposefully change the place of its interaction with the substrate. It was shown that the phenolysis of cyclotriphosphazenes occurs in the bulk of the organic phase or, alternatively, in the organic sublayer adjacent to the phase separation boundary. The presen­ted data suggested that the transphase reaction can be described in terms of a single mecha­nism, in contrast to the generally accepted division into extraction and phase transfer. Thus, the topology of the transphase chemical interaction is influenced by the same factors as the limiting stage, and therefore, by vary­ing the ratio of lipophilicity and nucleophili­city of transphase reagents, one can purpose­fully change the zone of their interaction with the substrate. In this case, the rate of the ho­mogeneous response and the hyd­rophilicity of the ionic agent must be ta­ken into account. The features of the transphase reaction des­cribed here can be extended to other catalysts, such as betaines, the analogs of which have been used in various reactions of a similar type.

Multivalent polymers can control phase boundary, dynamics, and organization of liquid-liquid phase separation.

Multivalent polymers are a key structural component of many biocondensates. When interacting with their cognate binding proteins, multivalent polymers such as RNA and modular proteins have been shown to influence the liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) boundary to both control condensate formation and to influence condensate dynamics after phase separation. Much is still unknown about the function and formation of these condensed droplets, but changes in their dynamics or phase separation are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s Disease. Therefore, investigation into how the structure of multivalent polymers relates to changes in biocondensate formation and maturation is essential to understanding and treating these diseases. Here, we use a coarse-grain, Brownian Dynamics simulation with reactive binding that mimics specific interactions in order to investigate the difference between non-specific and specific multivalent binding polymers. We show that non-specific binding interactions can lead to much larger changes in droplet formation at lower protein-polymer interaction energies than their specific, valence-limited counterparts. We also demonstrate the effects of solvent conditions and polymer length on phase separation, and we present how modulating binding energy to the polymer can change the organization of a droplet in a three component system of polymer, binding protein, and solvent. Finally, we compare the effects of surface tension and polymer binding on the condensed phase dynamics, and show that both lower protein solubilities and higher attraction/affinity of the protein to the polymer result in slower droplet dynamics. This research will help to better understand experimental systems and provides additional insight into how multivalent polymers can control LLPS.

Microstructure development and morphological transition during deposition of immiscible alloy films

Complex three-dimensional microstructural patterns arise during deposition of immiscible alloys and their morphologies depend sensitively on alloy composition, deposition rates and substrate temperatures. Using phase field simulations, we construct a microstructure morphology map in a multi-dimensional space of material properties and processing parameters. We consider simultaneous effects from temperature-dependent surface and bulk diffusivities and thermodynamic driving force for phase separation, temperature- and composition-dependent interphase boundary and surface energies, as well as alloy composition, substrate temperature and deposition rate. The microstructural patterns and morphological transition sequences in as-deposited films revealed by the microstructure map are validated using experimental data from sputtered Cu-Mo alloy films as well as from other systems. Such a microstructural map can guide synthesis of three-dimensional compositionally modulated nanostructures via self-organization during deposition of immiscible alloy films.

Multiphysics approaches for modeling nanostructural evolution during physical vapor deposition of phase-separating alloy films

Physical vapor deposition of phase-separating alloy films yields a rich variety of distinct self-assembled nanostructures depending on the deposition rate and temperature. However, the role of grain boundaries, elastic imhomogeneity, and anisotropy, and surface tension, in the formation of such nanostructures is currently not well understood. Here, we employ a phase-field approach that couples the multiphysics of elemental diffusion, elastic misfit and anisotropy, surface tension, and grain boundaries with processing parameters, namely deposition rate and temperature, to investigate phase separation and grain boundary evolution in binary alloy films. We develop phase-field deposition models of increasing complexity to isolate and analyze the influence of processing parameters on nanostructural transitions in vapor co-deposited films. While it is found that such transitions are primarily guided by a minimization of total free energy, our simulation-based insights strongly indicate the phenomena of nanostructure selection at faster deposition rates. It is anticipated that the insights gained from this study will provide the much-required knowledgebase for establishing nanostructure-level control in the physical vapor deposition of alloy films.

A particle-based image segmentation method for phase separation and interface detection in PIV images of immiscible multiphase flow

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a valuable tool for experimentally studying multiphase flows. In order to distinguish the flow dynamics of each individual phase, proper image segmentation must be performed. In immiscible multiphase flows, the fidelity of phase segmentation is directly linked to the accuracy of the interface detection. This paper reports a novel method for robust phase separation and phase boundary identification applicable to particle images acquired via PIV. The method, which requires a seeding density differentiation between the phases, is based on particle detection and triangular meshing. In this method, tracer particles in all seeded phases are first identified, and the coordinates of the particle locations are then used to formulate a 2D unstructured mesh, where the triangular grids provide the basis for phase separation and the outer edges provide a basis for interface detection. This paper presents a parametric analysis on synthetic particle images to assess the performance of the method and to compare the results to existing approaches. In addition, an application to experimentally generated images is reported. These results show that this method can successfully track the complex interface evolution in a particularly challenging flow system consisting of immiscible multiphase flow in porous media.

Effects of Polydispersity on the Phase Behavior of Additive Hard Spheres in Solution.

The ability to separate enzymes, nucleic acids, cells, and viruses is an important asset in life sciences. This can be realised by using their spontaneous asymmetric partitioning over two macromolecular aqueous phases in equilibrium with one another. Such phases can already form while mixing two different types of macromolecules in water. We investigate the effect of polydispersity of the macromolecules on the two-phase formation. We study theoretically the phase behavior of a model polydisperse system: an asymmetric binary mixture of hard spheres, of which the smaller component is monodisperse and the larger component is polydisperse. The interactions are modelled in terms of the second virial coefficient and are assumed to be additive hard sphere interactions. The polydisperse component is subdivided into sub-components and has an average size ten times the size of the monodisperse component. We calculate the theoretical liquid–liquid phase separation boundary (the binodal), the critical point, and the spinodal. We vary the distribution of the polydisperse component in terms of skewness, modality, polydispersity, and number of sub-components. We compare the phase behavior of the polydisperse mixtures with their concomittant monodisperse mixtures. We find that the largest species in the larger (polydisperse) component causes the largest shift in the position of the phase boundary, critical point, and spinodal compared to the binary monodisperse binary mixtures. The polydisperse component also shows fractionation. The smaller species of the polydisperse component favor the phase enriched in the smaller component. This phase also has a higher-volume fraction compared to the monodisperse mixture.

Pattern formation of correlated impurities subjected to an impurity-medium interaction pulse

We study the correlated dynamics of few interacting bosonic impurities immersed in a one-dimensional harmonically trapped bosonic environment. The mixture is exposed to a time-dependent impurity-medium interaction pulse moving it across the relevant phase separation boundary. For modulation frequencies smaller than the trapping one, the system successively transits through the miscible/immiscible phases according to the driving of the impurity-medium interactions. For strong modulations, and driving from the miscible to the immiscible regime, a significant fraction of the impurities is expelled to the edges of the bath. They exhibit a strong localization behavior and tend to equilibrate. Following the reverse driving protocol, the impurities perform a breathing motion while featuring a two-body clustering and the bath is split into two incoherent parts. Interestingly, in both driving scenarios, dark-bright solitons are nucleated in the absence of correlations. A localization of the impurities around the trap center for weak impurity-impurity repulsions is revealed, which subsequently disperse into the bath for increasing interactions.

Interaction of Low Molecular Weight Poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate in Low Surfactant-Polyelectrolyte Ratio, Salt-Free Solutions.

Coacervation is widely used in formulations to induce a beneficial character to the formulation, but nonequilibrium effects are often manifest. Electrophoretic NMR (eNMR), pulsed-gradient spin-echo NMR (PGSE-NMR), and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) have been used to quantify the interaction between low molecular cationic poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in aqueous solution as a model for the precursor state to such nonequilibrium processes. The NMR data show that, within the low surfactant concentration one-phase region, an increasing surfactant concentration leads to a reduction in the charge on the polymer and a collapse of its solution conformation, attaining minimum values coincident with the macroscopic phase separation boundary. Interpretation of the scattering data reveals how the rodlike polymer changes over the same surfactant concentration window, with no discernible fingerprint of micellar type aggregates, but rather with the emergence of disklike and lamellar structures. At the highest surfactant concentration, the emergence of a weak Bragg peak in both the polymer and surfactant scattering suggests these precursor disk and lamellar structures evolve into paracrystalline stacks which ultimately phase separate. Addition of the nonionic surfactant hexa(ethylene glycol) monododecyl ether (C12E6) to the system seems to have little effect on the PDADMAC/SDS interaction as determined by NMR, merely displacing the observed behavior to lower SDS concentrations, commensurate with the total SDS present in the system. In other words, PDADMAC causes the disruption of the mixed SDS/C12E6 micelle, leading to SDS-rich PDADAMC/surfactant complexes coexisting with C12E6-rich micelles in solution.

Elastic ripening and inhibition of liquid-liquid phase separation.

Phase separation is a central concept of materials physics [1–3] and has recently emerged as an important route to compartmentalization within living cells [4–6]. Biological phase separation features activity [7], complex compositions [8], and elasticity [9], which reveal important gaps in our understanding of this universal physical phenomenon. Here, we explore the impact of elasticity on phase separation in synthetic polymer networks. We show that compressive stresses in a polymer network can suppress phase separation of the solvent that swells it, stabilizing mixtures well beyond the liquid-liquid phase separation boundary. Network stresses also drive a new form of ripening, driven by transport of solute down stiffness gradients. This elastic ripening can be much faster than conventional surface tension driven Ostwald ripening.

Nanocomposite Gel as Injectable Therapeutic Scaffold: Microstructural Aspects and Bioactive Properties.

The development of tissue scaffolds able to provide proper and accelerated regeneration of tissue is a main task of tissue engineering. We developed a nanocomposite gel that may be used as an injectable therapeutic scaffold. The nanocomposite gel is based on biocompatible gelling agents with embedded nanoparticles (iron oxide, silver, and hydroxyapatite) providing therapeutic properties. We have investigated the microstructure of the nanocomposite gel exposed to different substrates (porous materials and biological tissue). Here we show that the nanocomposite gel has the ability to self-reassemble mimicking the substrate morphology: exposition on porous mineral substrate caused reassembling of nanocomposite gel into 10× smaller scale structure; exposition to a section of humerus cortical bone decreased the microstructure scale more than twice (to ≤3 μm). The reassembling happens through a transitional layer which exists near the phase separation boundary. Our results impact the knowledge of gels explaining their abundance in biological organisms from the microstructural point of view. The results of our biological experiments showed that the nanocomposite gel may find diverse applications in the biomedical field.