The intertwined physics of active chemical reactions and phase separation

Phase separation is the thermodynamic process that explains how droplets form in multicomponent fluids. These can provide controlled compartments to localize chemical reactions, and reactions also affect droplets' dynamics. This review focuses on tight interplay between phase which originates from constraints. In particular, simple mass action kinetics cannot describe since requires non-ideal Instead, thermodynamics implies passive reduce complexity of diagrams only limited control over system's behavior. However, driven use external energy input create spatial fluxes, circumvent Such active systems suppress typical droplet coarsening, size, droplets. provides an extensible framework for describing separating systems, forms a basis improving technical applications understanding self-organized structures biological cells.