Water/ethyl acetate/ethanol is widely used as a “green” extractant system. We show that 2 different types of phase separation can be induced upon centrifugation in this ternary system using ethanol as a cosolvent of water and ethyl acetate: centrifuge-induced criticality and centrifuge-induced emulsification. The expected composition profiles of samples after centrifugation can be represented by bent lines in a ternary phase diagram when gravitational energy is added to the free energy of mixing. The experimental equilibrium composition profiles behave qualitatively as expected and can be predicted using a phenomenological theory of mixing. The concentration gradients are small except near the critical point, as expected for small molecules. Nevertheless, they are usable when accompanied by temperature cycles. These findings open new possibilities of centrifugal separation, even if control is delicate during temperature cycles. These schemes are accessible even at relatively low centrifugation speed for molecules that float and sediment with apparent molar masses several hundred times larger than the molecular mass.
| • | Pre-Ouzo (PO10 and PO20): The region in which a pre-Ouzo type of aggregation occurs in SFMEs, the region close to the 2-phase region on the water-rich side, where the PO20 composition has more ethanol (20%) than the PO10 composition. The PO20 composition is the formulation used for flavored alcoholic drinks, while many of the effects in centrifugation are more pronounced at lower concentration of ethanol since the supersaturation of the immiscible solvents is higher. |
| • | The dilute pre-Ouzo (dPO) point is a point similar to PO, but heavily used in practice, because of preconcentration of any hydrophobic solute. This is the region where dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) [15] is performed. |
| • | In the region close to the CP, prominent critical fluctuations give rise to centrifuge-induced criticality (CIC). This type of fluctuation is already present in binary systems [2]. |
| • | The living network (LN) region is the solvent-rich region close to the phase boundary. This region has been investigated by scattering and molecular dynamics. This region is the domain where the elusive “reverse” Ouzo effect was reported initially by Vitale et al. [16] but not yet quantified to our best knowledge. The microstructure is best understood as a 3-dimensional (3D) dynamical network of domains connected by hydrogen bonds [17]. The connection points in this network are the sites where excess water nucleation can occur. |
| • | The concentrated living network region CLN is the intermediate domain between the CP and the LN region. It can be unambiguously quantified by scattering since the dominant scattering is a broad Lorentzian peak corresponding to a network mesh size and, at the same time, a smaller contribution as an Ornstein–Zernike function due to the proximity of the CP: The fluctuation can be understood as water molecules nucleating at cross-link points of the connected hydrogen bond network [18]. |
| • | Maceration point (MP): The point high up in the phase diagram that is used for maceration in case of extraction of organic molecules from plants. This hydrotrope-rich region in which no local structuration occurs is also used in the broadly used “Bligh and Dyer” methods and their greener version [14]. |
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |