Abstract
The properties of metastable and equilibrium drops that occur in the vapor phase and differ in the size and position of the dividing surface are compared. Using an equimolecular dividing surface, it was found that the total free energy and the total mass of the substance in drops of the same size over a broad temperature range differ by not more than 0.3%. A similar comparison for a dividing surface chosen from the equality condition of the moments of forces gives rather similar results. Using the surface where the maximum surface tension is attained as the dividing surface is impossible at low temperatures, because under these conditions, the notion of surface tension has no physical meaning. At high temperatures, the difference between the total mass of the substance for metastable and equilibrium drops does not exceed 0.6%. The calculations were carried out over a broad temperature range on the basis of the lattice-gas model in the quasichemical approximation.
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Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 839–842, April, 2010
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Tovbin, Y.K., Rabinovich, A.B. Comparison of the properties of metastable and equilibrium drops in the vapor phase. Russ Chem Bull 59, 857–860 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11172-010-0174-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11172-010-0174-4