Capillary pressure of van der Waals liquid nanodrops

TL;DR

This paper investigates how van der Waals forces influence the surface tension of nanodrops, revealing that their effect cancels out in the thermodynamics of new-phase formation, challenging the universality of the Tolman formula.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the size-dependence of surface tension varies across systems and shows that van der Waals interactions do not impact the thermodynamics of phase formation.

Findings

The Tolman formula is not universally applicable.

Van der Waals interactions cancel out in nanodrop thermodynamics.

Surface tension size-dependence varies between systems.

Abstract

The dependence of the surface tension on a nanodrop radius is important for the new-phase formation process. It is demonstrated that the famous Tolman formula is not unique and the size-dependence of the surface tension can distinct for different systems. The analysis is based on a relationship between the surface tension and disjoining pressure in nanodrops. It is shown that the van der Waals interactions do not affect the new-phase formation thermodynamics since the effect of the disjoining pressure and size-dependent component of the surface tension cancel each other.