# Elastic ripening and inhibition of liquid-liquid phase separation

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how elastic stresses within polymer networks can suppress phase separation, stabilize mixtures, and induce a novel, faster ripening process driven by stiffness gradients, with implications for cellular organization.

## Contribution

It introduces the concept of elastic ripening and shows how network stresses influence phase separation and droplet dynamics in synthetic systems.

## Key findings

- Compressive stresses suppress phase separation.
- Network stresses stabilize mixtures beyond phase boundary.
- Stiffness gradients drive rapid elastic ripening.

## Abstract

Phase separation has recently emerged as an important organizational principle in the dense and heterogeneous environment within living cells. Here, we use a synthetic system to show that compressive stresses in a polymer network suppress phase separation of the solvent that swells it. These stresses create a barrier to droplet nucleation that leads to robust, stabilized mixtures well beyond the liquid-liquid phase separation boundary. Network stresses not only alter the stability of mixtures, but they also have a dramatic effect on the ripening of droplets. Gradients in network stresses can drive a new form of ripening, where solute is transported down stiffness gradients. This elastic ripening can be much faster than conventional surface tension driven Ostwald ripening.