Molecular dynamics simulations of phase separation in chemically reactive binary mixtures

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Abstract
A molecular dynamics system of a two dimensional immiscible binary mixture with a first order chemical reaction that changes a particle from one of the species to the other, is set up, in close analogy to the Monte Carlo investigation of a similar system on a square lattice by S. Glotzer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 4110 (1994)]. In contrast to their investigation we do not find any labyrinthlike domain formation at the steady states and no direct equality between the way in that the system scales with respect to reaction rate and growth exponent in the absence of a chemical reaction. The differences are explained by the fact that a stochastic model misses the hydrodynamic modes that are mainly responsible for the phase separation in this system and that the discrete lattice imposes an external field on the domains that order the steady-state domains in a labyrinthlike structure. © 1996 The American Physical Society.