Fig. 1: Lateral microphase separation on oil-in-water droplet interfaces.

2D (top row) and 3D top view (bottom row) CLSM fluorescence images of five modes of microphase separation observed on the surface of tributyrin oil droplets suspended in water at pH 7; PVA-in-BSA (a), BSA-in-PVA-in-BSA (b), hybrid of PVA-in-BSA and PVA-in-BSA-in-PVA (c), PVA-in-BSA-in-PVA (d) and BSA-in-PVA (e). BSA is labeled with rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RBITC; red fluorescence). Insets on bottom row: fluorescence intensity profiles recorded at selected positions on the droplet surfaces (yellow dashed lines in top views). f Distribution of different microphase separation modes at different BSA and PVA concentrations. Size of PVA (g) and BSA (h) discontinuous domains for different concentrations; samples: S1, BSA 9 mg/mL, PVA 0.1 mg/mL; S2, BSA 8 mg/mL, PVA 0.2 mg/mL; S3, BSA 7 mg/mL, PVA 0.3 mg/mL, S4, BSA 3 mg/mL, PVA 0.7 mg/mL; S5, BSA 2 mg/mL, PVA 0.8 mg/mL; S6, BSA 1 mg/mL, PVA 0.9 mg/mL. Data in (g, h) are presented as violin plots, black dashed lines indicate median and gray solid line indicate quartiles (n = 1000 domains examined over 3 independent experiments). All relevant experiments in (a–e) are performed independently at least three times with similar results. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.