Homogeneous Nucleation General Relations

The change of the Gibbs free energy caused by the formation of a nucleus is determined by the following expression  

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Equations 15.5 and 15.17 can be used to establish the relationship between the reduced temperature and reduced pressure for the spinodal point (and hence for the so-called thermodynamic limit for homogeneous nucleation). Carey [4] compared data for homogeneous nucleation with this limit, and his results are illustrated in Fig. 15.6. The results generally lie between those predicted from the van der Waals equation (X = 0) and the Berthelot equation (X = 1). An empirical expression for the homogeneous nucleation temperature, which is also expressed in terms of reduced properties, is that of Lienhard [15], who relates the reduced homogeneous nucleation temperature Tr to the reduced saturation temperature Tr%at as follows ... 

Equation (60) in the general form presented here has been derived by Kaischew and includes also the heterogeneous nucleation. According to Kaischew, the Gibbs free energy, AGf, of nucleus formation in the heterogeneous case is related to AGc for the nucleation in a homogeneous phase by... 

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