Thermodynamic formulas of liquid phase nucleation from vapor in multicomponent systems

Abstract

Interfacial thermodynamics is extended to noncritical liquid clusters in vapor for multicomponent systems so as to clarify the uncertainty over whether or not size and composition dependence of interfacial tension must be taken into account in taking the extremity condition of the reversible work of forming a noncritical cluster to derive the size and the composition of a critical nucleus. It is found that the differential of interfacial tension does not arise in the extremity condition due to the Gibbs–Duhem relation derived for a system of a noncritical cluster and the vapor which is in equilibrium under an additional constraint to maintain the number of molecules contained in a cluster.