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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Optimization of Crystal Growth for Neutron Macromolecular Crystallography
Published on: March 13, 2021
Metastability and nucleation in capillary condensation
1Laboratoire de Physique (UMR CNRS 5672), ENS-Lyon, 46 allee d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France.
Abstract:
This paper is devoted to thermally activated dynamics of capillary condensation. On the basis of a simple model we identify the critical nucleus involved in the transition mechanism and calculate the nucleation barrier from which we obtain information on the nucleation time. Close to the condensation point, the theory predicts extremely large energy barriers leading to strong metastabilities, long time dependencies, and large hysteresis in agreement with experimental observations in mesoporous media. The validity of the model is assessed using a numerical simulation of a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model for the confined system.
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