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. 2017 May 30;8:15642. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15642

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Copyright © 2017, The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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At the moving isotropic-nematic phase boundary, nematic tactoids nucleate in the biphasic bulk fluid region near the interface. The tactoids then either coalesce with other tactoids nearby or into the advancing phase boundary. The droplet is viewed by POM and is evaporating under ambient conditions, with an initial concentration of 15% SSY by weight. (a,b) Between 0 s and 0.27 s, two small nematic tactoids in the lower middle portion of the frame are observed to coalesce into a single larger tactoid. (c,d) Approximately 1 s later, at 1.53 s, a larger tactoid is seen to coalesce with the phase boundary. The defects that transfer into the bulk annihilate rapidly,that is, before 2.40 s.