Quantitative Characterization of Critical Nanoclusters Nucleated on Large Single Molecules

Autor(en)

Paul Winkler, Aron Vrtala, Gerhard Steiner, Daniela Wimmer, H Vehkamaki, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Georg Reischl, Markku Kulmala, Paul Wagner

Abstrakt

First order phase transitions involve nucleation, formation of nanoscale regions of a new phase within a metastable parent phase. Using the heterogeneous nucleation theorem we show how clusters formed by nucleation on single molecules evolve from the gas phase and determine the critical size beyond which condensation starts to form aerosol particles. Our experiments reveal the activation of molecules into droplets to happen via formation of critical clusters substantially larger than the seed molecule. The nanosized critical clusters were found to be well predicted by the Kelvin-Thomson relation pointing directly to the key step in the phase transition.

Organisation(en)

Aerosolphysik und Umweltphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Helsinki

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Band

108

Anzahl der Seiten

5

ISSN

0031-9007

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.085701

Publikationsdatum

2012

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1030 Physik, Astronomie, 103008 Experimentalphysik, 105904 Umweltforschung

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/59c54376-b554-4194-a20b-66af34655996