Adiabatic Nucleation, Stability Limit and the Glass Transition Temperature

Abstract

The conditions under which the first step of a spontaneous irreversible process (e.g. nucleation) occurs are studied. It is concluded that such a process can be supposed to occur in a large adiabatic system, at constant external pressure and with increasing entropy, if the corresponding experimental conditions are satisfied. A simple adiabatic nucleation model shows a definite stability limit for the liquid-solid phase transition and is in excellent agreement with experimental data. The fact, whether the glass transition temperature of a given liquid is lower or higher than the stability limit temperature, decides, whether homogeneous nucleation is probable or not.