Kinetic nucleation theory: A new expression for the rate of homogeneous nucleation from an ideal supersaturated vapor

Abstract

The ‘‘kinetic theory’’ of homogeneous nucleation developed by Katz and Wiedersich is extended to derive a new expression for the rate of nucleation from an ideal supersaturated vapor. Compared to the classical expression for the nucleation rate, the new expression has a slightly different dependence on supersaturation, and a substantially different dependence on temperature. A comparison of the new expression with experimental data on nucleation rates of several organic liquids indicates that in some but not all cases the new expression gives much closer agreement with the data than does the classical expression. Discrepancies between the theory and the data are ascribed mainly to the physical assumptions of the theory presented, which are the same as in the classical theory—particularly, that the physical properties of microscopic clusters are the same as those of the bulk liquid.