Ion-induced nucleation in polar one-component fluids

TL;DR

This paper develops a Ginzburg-Landau theoretical framework to understand how ions induce nucleation in polar gases, revealing that ion solvation effects significantly lower the energy barrier for droplet formation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Ginzburg-Landau model for ion-induced nucleation in polar fluids, highlighting the impact of solvation free energy differences on nucleation barriers.

Findings

Solvation free energy is higher in gas than in liquid at the same temperature.

The difference in solvation free energy reduces the nucleation barrier in metastable gases.

The theory explains how ions facilitate droplet formation in polar fluids.

Abstract

We present a Ginzburg-Landau theory of ion-induced nucleation in a gas phase of polar one-component fluids, where a liquid droplet grows with an ion at its center. By calculating the density profile around an ion, we show that the solvation free energy is larger in gas than in liquid at the same temperature on the coexistence curve. This difference much reduces the nucleation barrier in a metastable gas.