SEMIPHENOMENOLOGICAL THEORY OF HOMOGENEOUS VAPOR-LIQUID NUCLEATION

A new semiphenomenological theory of homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation is proposed. It is based on the Fisher droplet model applied at the saturation point within the framework of the kinetic approach. The microscopic surface tension of a droplet is supposed to have the Tolman form. The unknown Tolman length is naturally identified by equating a known empirical value of saturation pressure p(sat) to the sum of the series over all droplet sizes for p(sat) emerging from the Fisher model. The theory contains no adjustable parameters. Predictions of the new theory for various substances are compared with available experimental data and with the three other widely used theoretical models: classical nucleation theory, corrected Dillmann-Meier and Delale-Meier theory. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.