Chapter 10 - Transition frequencies

Abstract

Knowledge of transition frequencies fnm allows determination of all important characteristics of the nucleation process without resorting to thermodynamic quantities. In nucleation kinetics, fnm play the same central role as that of the nucleation work W(n) in the thermodynamics of nucleation. This chapter discusses the frequency of monomer attachment and monomer detachment. Finding the attachment and the detachment frequencies, however, is not equally easy because the attachment depends on the state of the old phase, which is not so difficult to describe as this phase is a bulk one. On the contrary, the detachment of a molecule from the cluster is largely determined by the cluster properties that are poorly known, because the cluster is a new phase of finite size. Thus, in many cases it is more convenient to eliminate the detachment frequencies from the theoretical description. The attachment frequencies appear as indispensable kinetic parameters in the theory of nucleation.