Thermally Activated Dynamics of the Capillary Condensation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple model to analyze thermally activated capillary condensation, focusing on nucleation barriers and times, and extends it to rough surfaces for better experimental comparison.

Contribution

A novel simple model for capillary condensation dynamics that includes surface roughness effects and allows estimation of nucleation barriers and times.

Findings

Calculated nucleation barriers in 2D and 3D geometries.

Extended model to rough surfaces for experimental relevance.

Provided estimations of nucleation times based on the model.

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the thermally activated dynamics of the capillary condensation. We present a simple model which enables us to identify the critical nucleus involved in the transition mechanism. This simple model is then applied to calculate the nucleation barrier from which we can obtain informations on the nucleation time. We present a simple estimation of the nucleation barrier in slab geometry both in the two dimensional case and in the three dimensional case. We extend the model in the case of rough surfaces which is closer to the experimental case and allows comparison with experimental datas.