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

J Phys Chem Lett. 2020 Sep 3;11(17):7273-7278. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02110. Epub 2020 Aug 20.

Abstract

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.