Related papers: Theory of Nucleation in Phase-separating Nanoparti…
Classical nucleation theory is used to estimate the free-energy barrier to nucleation of the solid phase of particles interacting via a potential which has a short-ranged attraction. Due to the high interfacial tension between the fluid and…
Nucleation of a new phase almost always starts at a surface. This surface is almost always assumed not to change with time. However, surfaces can roughen, partially dissolve and change chemically with time. Each of these irreversible…
Crystallization of supersaturated liquids usually starts by heterogeneous nucleation. Mounting evidence shows that even homogeneous nucleation in simple liquids takes place in two steps; first a dense amorphous precursor forms, and the…
Heterogeneous nucleation of a new bulk phase on a flat substrate can be associated with the surface phase transition called wetting transition. When this bulk heterogeneous nucleation occurs on a completely-wettable flat substrate with a…
In many systems, nucleation of a stable solid may occur in the presence of other (often more than one) metastable phases. These may be polymorphic solids or even liquid phases. In such cases, nucleation of the solid phase from the melt may…
Phase diagrams of some globular proteins have a fluid-fluid transition as well as a fluid-crystal transition. Homogeneous nucleation of the crystal from the fluid phase near the critical point of the fluid-fluid transition is examined. As…
The thermodynamics of strongly anisotropic crystalline surfaces is analogous to that of a binary mixture exhibiting phase separation. On a metastable planar surface, formation of stable orientations requires a nucleation process, in which…
We derive a theory that describes homogeneous nucleation of grain boundary (GB) phases. Our analysis takes account of the energy resulting from the GB phase junction, the line defect separating two different GB structures, which is…
First order phase transitions proceed via nucleation. The rate of nucleation varies exponentially with the free-energy barrier to nucleation, and so is highly sensitive to variations in this barrier. In practice, very few systems are…
Phase transformations such as freezing typically start with heterogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation near a wetting transition, of a crystalline phase is studied. The wetting transition occurs at or near a vapour-liquid transition…
Heterogeneous nucleation at surface edges is pervasive across nature and industry, yet the role of line tension, arising from asymmetric capillary interactions at geometric singularities, remains poorly understood. Herein we develop a…
Classical nucleation theory (CNT), linking rare nucleation events to the free energy landscape of a growing nucleus, is central to understanding phase-change kinetics in passive fluids. Nucleation in non-equilibrium systems is much harder…
We theoretically investigate the nucleation of liquid droplets from vapor in the presence of a charged spherical particle. Due to field gradients, sufficiently close to the critical point of the vapor--gas system, the charge destabilizes…
An analytical description of nucleation stage in a supersaturated vapor with instantly created supersaturation is given with taking into account the vapor concentration inhomogeneities arising as a result of depletion due to non-stationary…
When applying a voltage bias across a thin nanopore, localized Joule heating can lead to single bubble nucleation, offering a unique platform for studying nanoscale bubble behavior, which is still poorly understood. Accordingly, we…
We develop a theory of nucleation on top of two-dimensional islands bordered by steps with an additional energy barrier $\Delta E_S$ for descending atoms. The theory is based on the concept of the residence time of an adatom on the…
Homogeneous nucleation, a textbook transition path for phase transitions, is typically understood on thermodynamic grounds through the prism of classical nucleation theory. However, recent studies have suggested the applicability of…
A phase eld approach is developed to model wetting and heterogeneous crystal nucleation of an undercooled pure liquid in contact with a sharp wall. We discuss various choices for the boundary condition at the wall and determine the…
A new approach that is a combination of classical thermodynamics and macroscopic kinetics is offered for studying the nucleation kinetics in condensed binary solutions. The theory covers the separation of liquid and solid solutions…
Nucleation is the onset of a first-order phase transition by which a metastable phase transforms into a more stable one. Such a phase transition occurs when an initial system initially in equilibrium is destabilized by the change of an…