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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Multiscale Sampling of a Heterogeneous Water/Metal Catalyst Interface using Density Functional Theory and Force-Field Molecular Dynamics
Published on: April 12, 2019
Extended study of molecular dynamics simulation of homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation of water
Hiroki Matsubara1, Takahiro Koishi, Toshikazu Ebisuzaki
1Computational Astrophysics Laboratory, RIKEN, Wako 351-0198, Japan. matsubara@riken.jp
Abstract:
Using the simple point charge/extended water model, we performed molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation at various values of temperature T and supersaturation S, from which the nucleation rate J, critical nucleus size n(*), and the cluster formation free energy DeltaG were derived. As well as providing lots of simulation data, the results were compared with theories on homogeneous nucleation, including the classical, semi-phenomenological, and scaled models, but none of these gave a satisfactory explanation for our results. It was found that two main factors made the theories fail: (1) The average cluster structure including the nonspherical shape and the core structure that is not like the bulk liquid and (2) the forward rate which is larger than assumed by the theories by about one order of magnitude. The quantitative evaluation of these factors is left for future investigations.
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