2008/08/07 by Masao Iwamatsu · 12 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Binodal #Bubble #Compressibility #Condensed matter physics #Geometry #Mathematics #Mechanics #Nucleation #Phase (matter) #Phase diagram #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scaling #Spinodal #Spinodal decomposition #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Thermodynamics #Work (physics) #cond-mat.soft #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2976575
published in The Journal of Chemical Physics 129(10), 104508 (American Institute of Physics) · 10 pages, 10 figures, Journal of Chemical Physics accepted for publication
arxiv created 2008/08/07 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The square-gradient density-functional model with triple-parabolic free energy is used to study the homogeneous bubble nucleation in a stretched liquid to check the scaling rule for the work of formation of the critical bubble as a function of scaled undersaturation Delta mu/Delta mu(spin), the difference in chemical potential Deltamu between the bulk undersaturated and saturated liquid divided by Delta mu(spin) between the liquid spinodal and saturated liquid. In contrast to our study, a similar density-functional study for a Lennard-Jones liquid by Shen and Debenedetti [J. Chem. Phys. 114, 4149 (2001)] found that not only the work of formation but also other various quantities related to the critical bubble show the scaling rule; however, we found virtually no scaling relationships in our model near the coexistence. Although some quantities show almost perfect scaling relations near the spinodal, the work of formation divided by the value deduced from the classical nucleation theory shows no scaling in this model even though it correctly vanishes at the spinodal. Furthermore, the critical bubble does not show any anomaly near the spinodal as predicted many years ago. In particular, our model does not show diverging interfacial width at the spinodal, which is due to the fact that compressibility remains finite until the spinodal is reached in our parabolic models.