THEORY OF HOMOGENEOUS NUCLEATION WITH SIZE CORRECTION

A thermodynamic model of clusters with size correction is proposed, which implies that the cluster chemical potential is a linear function of the number of molecules at its surface and of the total number of molecules. The model requires no inclusion of the surface tension for small clusters, and therefore, has no restrictions in this size range. The expressions for homogeneous nucleation rates are obtained in the approximations of small and large critical sizes. Calculated nucleation rates are somewhat lower than those predicted by the classical theory for water vapor and many orders of magnitude higher for mercury, which agrees with experiments.