Experimental studies of the vapor phase nucleation of refractory compounds. VI. The condensation of sodium

Daniel M Martínez; Frank T Ferguson; Richard H Heist; Joseph A Nuth 3rd

doi:10.1063/1.1998834

Experimental studies of the vapor phase nucleation of refractory compounds. VI. The condensation of sodium

J Chem Phys. 2005 Aug 1;123(5):054323. doi: 10.1063/1.1998834.

Authors

Daniel M Martínez¹, Frank T Ferguson, Richard H Heist, Joseph A Nuth 3rd

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA. daniel.m.martinez@nasa.gov

PMID: 16108655
DOI: 10.1063/1.1998834

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the condensation of sodium vapor and the formation of a sodium aerosol as it occurs in a gas evaporation condensation chamber. A one-dimensional model describing the vapor transport to the vapor/aerosol interface was employed to determine the onset supersaturation, in which we assume the observed location of the interface is coincident with a nucleation rate maximum. We then present and discuss the resulting nucleation onset supersaturation data within the context of nucleation theory based on the liquid droplet model. Nucleation results appear to be consistent with a cesium vapor-to-liquid nucleation study performed in a thermal diffusion cloud chamber.