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Equilibrium bicontinuous structure

Nature volume 263, pages 123–125 (1976)Cite this article

Abstract

BICONTINUOUS partitioning of a volume is produced by inscribing a continuous, orientable surface of positive genus without self-intersection. This divides the volume into two multiply connected, interpenetrating subvolumes, each of them physically continuous (mathematically connected). Neither on a line nor in the plane is there an analogue. A bicontinuous structure is a bicontinuous partitioning in which each subvolume is filled with a distinct, not necessarily uniform composition or state of matter. In familiar examples one subvolume is solid or semi-solid, for example sandstone or sponge. An interspersion of two phases is bicontinuous only if each phase is connected across the specimen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455

    L. E. SCRIVEN

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  1. L. E. SCRIVEN
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SCRIVEN, L. Equilibrium bicontinuous structure. Nature 263, 123–125 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/263123a0

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