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Vapor condensation onto a non-volatile liquid drop
Levent Inci1, Richard K Bowles
1Department of Chemistry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9, Canada.
The Journal of Chemical Physics
|December 11, 2013
Summary
Molecular dynamics simulations reveal how vapor condenses onto liquid drops. For miscible and partially miscible mixtures, distinct behaviors like film formation and solubility transitions were observed, impacting nucleation theory.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Computational Chemistry
Background:
- Vapor condensation onto liquid drops is crucial in various physical and chemical processes.
- Understanding the dynamics and thermodynamics of this process is key for applications like atmospheric science and materials design.
- Previous studies often simplified mixture behavior or focused on specific conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the condensation dynamics and thermodynamics of binary Lennard-Jones mixtures onto a non-volatile liquid drop.
- To explore the influence of miscibility on adsorption, film formation, and core mixing.
- To develop and validate a theoretical model for solubility transitions in partially miscible systems.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing molecular dynamics simulations in the canonical ensemble.
- Analyzing systems with varying volume and miscibility (miscible and partially miscible).
- Developing a capillarity approximation-based model for non-volatile liquid drops.
Main Results:
- Observed submonolayer adsorption at large volumes with minor solvent mixing in miscible systems.
- Identified complete film formation at smaller volumes, driven by cluster-cluster coalescence.
- Discovered a solubility transition in partially miscible systems below a critical volume, accompanied by hysteresis.
- Validated simulation findings with the developed theoretical model.
Conclusions:
- The study elucidates the complex interplay between miscibility, system volume, and condensation behavior.
- A novel model successfully captures solubility transitions and hysteresis, relevant to deliquescence phenomena.
- Findings contribute to refining classical nucleation theory for systems with low free energy barriers.
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