Steady-state nucleation rate and flux of composite nucleus at saddle point

TL;DR

This paper extends binary nucleation theory to analyze the steady-state nucleation rate and flux of composite nuclei at the saddle point, highlighting the influence of reaction rates and free-energy surfaces on nucleation behavior.

Contribution

It derives a Fokker-Planck equation with non-diagonal reaction rate elements for composite nucleation and analyzes how reaction rates affect nucleation flux direction and rate.

Findings

Nucleation flux direction deviates from the steepest-descent path.

Two key reaction rates significantly influence nucleation rate and flux.

The potential gradient is less sensitive to reaction rates and free-energy surface.

Abstract

The steady-state nucleation rate and flux of composite nucleus at the saddle point is studied by extending the theory of binary nucleation. The Fokker-Planck equation that describes the nucleation flux is derived using the Master equation for the growth of the composite nucleus, which consists of the core of the final stable phase surrounded by a wetting layer of the intermediate metastable phase nucleated from a metastable parent phase recently evaluated by the author [J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 134}, 164508 (2011)]. The Fokker-Planck equation is similar to that used in the theory of binary nucleation, but the non-diagonal elements exist in the reaction rate matrix. First, the general solution for the steady-state nucleation rate and the direction of nucleation flux is derived. Next, this information is then used to study the nucleation of composite nucleus at the saddle point. The dependence of steady-state nucleation rate as well as the direction of nucleation flux on the reaction rate in addition to the free-energy surface is studied using a model free-energy surface. The direction of nucleation current deviates from the steepest-descent direction of the free-energy surface. The results show the importance of two reaction rate constants: one from the metastable environment to the intermediate metastable phase and the other from the metastable intermediate phase to the stable new phase. On the other hand, the gradient of the potential $\Phi$ or the Kramers crossover function (the commitment or splitting probability) is relatively insensitive to reaction rates or free-energy surface.