THERMODYNAMIC STUDIES OF LEVITATED MICRODROPLETS OF HIGHLY SUPERSATURATED ELECTROLYTE-SOLUTIONS

Highly supersaturated electrolyte solutions are studied by employing a n electrodynamic levitator trap (ELT) technique. The ELT technique inv olves containerless suspension of a microdroplet thus eliminating dust , dirt, and container walls which normally cause heterogeneous nucleat ion. This allows very high supersaturations to be achieved. A theoreti cal study of the experimental results obtained for the water activity in microdroplets of various electrolyte solutions is based on the deve lopment of the Cahn-Hilliard formalism for electrolyte solutions. A co rrespondence of 96-99% between the theory and experiment for the all s olutions studied was achieved and allowed the determination of an anal ytical expression for the spinodal concentration n(spin) and its calcu lation for various electrolyte solutions at 298 K.