NUCLEATION IN MOLECULAR AND DIPOLAR FLUIDS - INTERACTION SITE MODEL

We consider the effect of molecular anisotropy and dipole moment on th e rate of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of molecular and di polar fluids. Density functional theory is applied to an interaction s ite model of molecules composed of two tangent or fused hard spheres i nteracting through Lennard-Jones and coulombic potentials. Interfacial properties are conditioned by entropy vs energy competition. For nucl eation on a charged hard sphere, the calculated rates depend strongly on the size and charge of the central seed. Preferred surface orientat ions of the dipolar molecules are responsible for nucleation rates dif fering by several orders of magnitude for charges of different sign. ( C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.