Impurity mediated nucleation in hexadecane-in-water emulsions

We report detailed nucleation studies on the liquid-to-solid transition of hexadecane using nearly monodisperse hexadecane-in-water emulsions. A caref ul consideration of the kinetics of isothermal and nonisothermal freezing s hows deviations from predictions of classical nucleation theory, if one ass umes that the emulsion droplet population is homogeneous. Similar deviation s have been observed previously [3]. As an explanation, we propose an argum ent based on the dynamic generation of droplet heterogeneity mediated by mo bile impurities. This proposal is in good agreement with existing data.