  Liquid-liquid phase separation of liquids exhibiting interconversion between
alternative states has been proposed as an underlying mechanism for fluid
polyamorphism, and may be of relevance to protein function and intracellular
organization. However, molecular-level insight into the interplay between
competing forces that can drive or restrict phase separation in interconverting
fluids remains elusive. Here, we utilize an off-lattice model of enantiomers
with tunable chiral interconversion and interaction properties to elucidate the
physics underlying the stabilization and tunability of phase separation in
fluids with interconverting states. We show that introducing an imbalance in
the intermolecular forces between two enantiomers results in nonequilibrium,
arrested phase separation into microdomains. We also find that in the
equilibrium case, when all interaction forces are conservative, the growth of
the phase domain is restricted only by system size. In this case, we observe
phase amplification, in which one of the two alternative phases grows at the
expense of the other. These findings provide novel insights on how the
interplay between dynamics and thermodynamics defines the equilibrium and
steady-state morphologies of phase transitions in fluids with interconverting
molecular or supramolecular states.
