Related papers: Theory of Nucleation in Phase-separating Nanoparti…
The classical nucleation theory (CNT) concept of a nucleus as a fragment of the bulk new phase fails for nanosized nuclei. An extension of CNT taking into account the properties of the transition region between coexisting bulk phases is…
Heterogeneous nucleation on catalytic surfaces plunged into a fluid is described through a stochastic model. To generate this non-equilibrium process we assume that the turn on of a electrostatic potential triggers a complex dynamics that…
In the standard treatment of heterogeneous nucleation on a surface, the energy of the surface is assumed to be homogeneous. Often its value is obtained from some macroscopic measurement. We ask the question what happens if we consider the…
We review our recent modeling of crystal nucleation and polycrystalline growth using a phase field theory. First, we consider the applicability of phase field theory for describing crystal nucleation in a model hard sphere fluid. It is…
The density functional approach is used to study the gas-to-liquid and liquid-to-gas nucleation phenomena in a fluid of two-level atoms in an external electrical field. The influence of the field on the surface tension and nucleation and…
Heterogeneous nucleation is a process wherein extrinsic impurities facilitate freezing by lowering nucleation barriers and constitutes the dominant mechanism for crystallization in most systems. Classical nucleation theory (\textsc{Cnt})…
We report a numerical study of the rate of crystal nucleation in a binary suspension of oppositely charged colloids. Two different crystal structures compete in the thermodynamic conditions under study. We find that the crystal phase that…
Bubble nucleation in liquid confined in nanochannel is studied using molecular dynamics simulations and compared against nucleation in the liquid over smooth (i.e. without confinement). Nucleation is achieved by heating part of a surface to…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
A fluid in equilibrium in a finite volume $V$ with particle number $N$ at a density $\rho = N/V$ exceeding the onset density $\rho_f $ of freezing may exhibit phase coexistence between a crystalline nucleus and surrounding fluid. Using a…
It is widely believed that heterogeneous nucleation occurs without an activation process when the surface is completely wettable. In this report, we review our previous work [J.Chem.Phys {\bf 134}, 234709 (2011)] to show that the critical…
Phase transitions ruled by nucleation and growth can occur by nonrandom arrangement of nuclei. This is verified, for instance, in thin film growth at solid surfaces by vapor condensation or by electrodeposition where, around each nucleus, a…
Recently-reported data suggest that bubble nucleation on surfaces with nano-sized features (cavities and posts) may occur close to the thermodynamic saturation temperature. However, according to the traditional theory of heterogeneous…
We present a phase field theory for binary crystal nucleation. In the one-component limit, quantitative agreement is achieved with computer simulations (Lennard-Jones system) and experiments (ice-water system) using model parameters…
Using the 2D Ising model we study the generic properties of nucleation in hydrophobic nanopores. To explore the pathways to nucleation of a spin-up phase from a metastable spin-down phase we perform umbrella sampling and transition path…
We consider the effect of nucleation on a one-dimensional stepped surface, finding that step-flow growth is metastable for any strength of the additional step-edge barrier. The surface is made unstable by the formation of a critical…
Homogeneous nucleation of a new phase near a second, continuous, transition, is considered. The continuous transition is in the metastable region associated with the first-order phase transition, one of whose coexisting phases is…
Classical nucleation theory offers a good framework for understanding the common features of new phase formation processes in metastable homogeneous media at rest. However, nucleation processes in liquids are ubiquitously affected by…
Nucleation and growth is the dominant relaxation mechanism driving first order phase transitions. In two-dimensional at systems nucleation has been applied to a wide range of problems in physics, chemistry and biology. Here we study…
Cell division is an essential biological process, and regulation of cell division is of relevance for many important fields of biology and medicine. Introducing exogenous substances, such as nanoparticles, into the nucleus, has been…