Excess energies of n- and i-octane molecular clusters

Abstract

Cloud chamber data for the nucleation of droplets from supersaturated n- and i-octane vapors are analyzed using nucleation theorems. We obtain the excess energies of pure and mixed component molecular clusters with sizes ranging from 19 to 58 molecules. We plot this information in the form of an excess energy surface for a range of cluster compositions. Since the two species are similar we also combine the data into a plot of excess energy against the total number of molecules in the cluster. We show that the capillarity approximation fails to predict the critical cluster composition, though it does provide a rough estimate of the excess energy of a specified cluster.