Application of scaled nucleation theory to metallic vapor condensation

In this paper we report that scaled nucleation theory (SNT) can describe mo derately well the observed nucleation behavior of a significant number of r efractory materials if a more appropriate value of a quantity commonly refe rred to as the excess surface entropy is used. With the availability of mor e reliable critical point and liquid property data, we are better able to c alculate this quantity and we find that for refractory materials it can be as small as one half to one third the quantity traditionally used in its ap proximation. As a result of using more accurate values, we find considerabl y better agreement between SNT and experiment than what was originally dete rmined. We also explain why using surface tension slope information to dete rmine the excess surface entropy can lead to substantial errors in the SNT supersaturation prediction. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.