Cooperative effect in nucleation: nanosized seed particles jointly nucleate vapor-liquid transitions

Using the constrained lattice density functional theory, in this work we show that when the size of critical nucleus for vapor-liquid transition is comparable to the distance between seed particles (or active sites on solid surfaces), a cooperative effect in nucleation processes is found. More specifically, neighboring seed particles are found to nucleate jointly the phase transition with a lower nucleation barrier and a different morphology of critical nucleus compared to those from an isolated seed particle. In addition, the cooperative effect, including the decrease of nucleation barrier and the morphology change of critical nucleus, is found to depend on the distance between seed particles, the fluid-solid interaction, and the particle size.