Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 4 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Paper 1 / 4 / a / Solution

For a homogeneous polymer solution, examine the curvature of the mixing Helmholtz free energy with respect to composition. A composition fluctuation into equal volumes at $\varphi \pm \delta \varphi$ changes the average free energy byThus $f^{\prime \prime }>0$ locally resists fluctuations and $f^{\prime \prime }<0$ amplifies them, leading to spinodal decomposition. The spinodal curve is the locus $f^{\prime \prime }=0$, separating locally stable or metastable homogeneous compositions from locally unstable ones. The coexistence binodal instead follows a common tangent to the free energy. Between the binodal and spinodal, separation needs nucleation.