Interplay between Glass Formation and Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation Revealed by the Scattering Invariant

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters Vol. 11; no. 17; pp. 7273 - 7278
• Main Authors: Da Vela, Stefano, Begam, Nafisa, Dyachok, Danylo, Schäufele, Richard Santiago, Matsarskaia, Olga, Braun, Michal K, Girelli, Anita, Ragulskaya, Anastasia, Mariani, Alessandro, Zhang, Fajun, Schreiber, Frank
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 03.09.2020
• Subjects: Physical Insights into Materials and Molecular Properties
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02110

The interplay of the glass transition with liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a subject of intense debate. We use the scattering invariant Q to probe how approaching the glass transition affects the shape of LLPS boundaries in the temperature/volume fraction plane. Two protein systems featuring kinetic arrest with a lower and an upper critical solution temperature phase behavior, respectively, are studied varying the quench depth. Using Q we noninvasively identify system-dependent differences for the effect of glass formation on the LLPS boundary. The glassy dense phase appears to enter the coexistence region for the albumin–YCl3 system, whereas it follows the equilibrium binodal for the γ-globulin–PEG system.