Toward a molecular theory of vapor-phase nucleation. V. Self-consistency in the decoupled dimer limit

Authors

K.J. Oh, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Xiao Cheng Zeng, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
H. Reiss, University of California at Los Angeles

Date of this Version

7-22-1997

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Chem. Physics 107 (4), 22 July 1997. ©1997 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jcp.aip.org/.

Abstract

The previous papers of this series introduced a molecular i / υ cluster theory of vapor phase nucleation. This theory differs from most conventional ones in that the cluster (due to fluctuation) is not only characterized by its number of particles i but also by a spherical volume υ. Thus the free energy of formation of the cluster is not merely a one-dimensional function of the number of particles i but a two-dimensional function of both i and v (i.e., it is a free energy surface). In the first stage of this development (Refs. 1–3) the theory is based on the i/ υ cluster with the i molecules inside a spherical volume υ whose surface is determined by a shell molecule while its center coincides with the center of mass of the i+1 molecules (see Fig. 1). The shell molecule is defined as the nearest vapor molecule to the cluster and there is no interaction between it and the cluster.