Scaled Vapor-to-Liquid Nucleation in a Lennard-Jones System

118

163

We present results from large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of homogeneous vapor-to-liquid nucleation. The simulations contain between 1 × 109 and 8 × 109 Lennard-Jones (LJ) atoms, covering up to 1.2 s (56 × 106 time-steps). They cover a wide range of supersaturation ratios, S = 1.55-104, and temperatures from kT = 0.3 to 1.0 (where is the depth of the LJ potential, and k is the Boltzmann constant). We have resolved nucleation rates as low as 1017 cm-3 s-1 (in the argon system), and critical cluster sizes as large as 100 atoms. Recent argon nucleation experiments probe nucleation rates in an overlapping range, making the first direct comparison between laboratory experiments and molecular dynamics simulations possible: We find very good agreement within the uncertainties, which are mainly due to the extrapolations of argon and LJ saturation curves to very low temperatures. The self-consistent, modified classical nucleation model of Girshick and Chiu [J. Chem. Phys. 93, 1273 (1990)] underestimates the nucleation rates by up to 9 orders of magnitudes at low temperatures, and at kT = 1.0 it overestimates them by up to 105. The predictions from a semi-phenomenological model by Laaksonen et al. [Phys. Rev. E 49, 5517 (1994)] are much closer to our MD results, but still differ by factors of up to 104 in some cases. At low temperatures, the classical theory predicts critical clusters sizes, which match the simulation results (using the first nucleation theorem) quite well, while the semi-phenomenological model slightly underestimates them. At kT = 1.0 , the critical sizes from both models are clearly too small. In our simulations the growth rates per encounter, which are often taken to be unity in nucleation models, lie in a range from 0.05 to 0.24. We devise a new, empirical nucleation model based on free energy functions derived from subcritical cluster abundances, and find that it performs well in estimating nucleation rates. We present results from large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of homogeneous vapor-toliquid nucleation. The simulations contain between 1 × 10 9 and 8 × 10 9 Lennard-Jones (LJ) atoms, covering up to 1.2 μs (56 × 10 6 time-steps). They cover a wide range of supersaturation ratios, S 1.55-10 4 , and temperatures from kT = 0.3 to 1.0 (where is the depth of the LJ potential, and k is the Boltzmann constant). We have resolved nucleation rates as low as 10 17 cm −3 s −1 (in the argon system), and critical cluster sizes as large as 100 atoms. Recent argon nucleation experiments probe nucleation rates in an overlapping range, making the first direct comparison between laboratory experiments and molecular dynamics simulations possible: We find very good agreement within the uncertainties, which are mainly due to the extrapolations of argon and LJ saturation curves to very low temperatures. The self-consistent, modified classical nucleation model of Girshick and Chiu [J. Chem. Phys. 93, 1273 (1990)] underestimates the nucleation rates by up to 9 orders of magnitudes at l...

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large scale molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous nucleation

Diemand

Angélil

Tanaka

et al. 2013

118

163

“…Hale [31][32][33] , data for the nucleation rates plotted vs. C 0 ln S/[T c /T − 1] 3/2 can collapse onto a single line. Here, S = p/p coex is the supersaturation, p is the pressure of supersaturated vapor, p coex is the pressure at the coexistence curve, T c is the critical temperature, and C 0 is a normalization factor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, an intriguing feature emergent in the analysis of data for the vapor-to-liquid nucleation is a supersaturation-temperature scaling of the nucleation rate data [30][31][32][33] . Namely, as shown by…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling law for crystal nucleation time in glasses

Мокшин

Galimzyanov

2015

Due to high viscosity, glassy systems evolve slowly to the ordered state. Results of molecular dynamics simulation reveal that the structural ordering in glasses becomes observable over "experimental" (finite) time-scale for the range of phase diagram with high values of pressure. We show that the structural ordering in glasses at such conditions is initiated through the nucleation mechanism, and the mechanism spreads to the states at extremely deep levels of supercooling. We find that the scaled values of the nucleation time, τ 1 (average waiting time of the first nucleus with the critical size), in glassy systems as a function of the reduced temperature, T , are collapsed onto a single line reproducible by the power-law dependence. This scaling is supported by the simulation results for the model glassy systems for a wide range of temperatures as well as by the experimental data for the stoichiometric glasses at the temperatures near the glass transition.

“…3,7,8 It succeeds in capturing the qualitative behavior, but fails to predict the correct temperature dependency of nucleation rates, and the predicted rates are often orders of magnitude different from measurements in unary and in multicomponent systems. [9][10][11][12] Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations are important sources of information on nucleation, [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] that for complicated mixtures and realistic conditions comes at the expense of large computational costs. 20 a) Electronic mail: oivind.wilhelmsen@ntnu.no…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic stability of nanosized multicomponent bubbles/droplets: The square gradient theory and the capillary approach

Wilhelmsen

Bedeaux

Kjelstrup

et al. 2014

Formation of nanosized droplets/bubbles from a metastable bulk phase is connected to many unresolved scientific questions. We analyze the properties and stability of multicomponent droplets and bubbles in the canonical ensemble, and compare with single-component systems. The bubbles/droplets are described on the mesoscopic level by square gradient theory. Furthermore, we compare the results to a capillary model which gives a macroscopic description. Remarkably, the solutions of the square gradient model, representing bubbles and droplets, are accurately reproduced by the capillary model except in the vicinity of the spinodals. The solutions of the square gradient model form closed loops, which shows the inherent symmetry and connected nature of bubbles and droplets. A thermodynamic stability analysis is carried out, where the second variation of the square gradient description is compared to the eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix in the capillary description. The analysis shows that it is impossible to stabilize arbitrarily small bubbles or droplets in closed systems and gives insight into metastable regions close to the minimum bubble/droplet radii. Despite the large difference in complexity, the square gradient and the capillary model predict the same finite threshold sizes and very similar stability limits for bubbles and droplets, both for single-component and two-component systems. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx