Heterogeneous nucleation on the conic surface substrate

Abstract

Nucleation is an essential step in the crystallization process of materials and determines their properties. In industrial production, nucleating agents are often added to melt or solution systems to control the formation process of the nucleus. In this paper, we investigate the problem of heterogeneous nucleation on conical surface substrates. Within the classical nucleation theory framework, a shape factor is introduced to measure the nucleation ability on a conical surface substrate. We found that the radius of the spherical nucleus is independent of the shape of the conic surface. As the eccentricity of the conic curve increases and the smaller the shape factor for nucleation, the easier it is to nucleate. In particular, there are special cases of the non-spherical nuclei on hyperboloid, paraboloid, and ellipsoidal substrates. We have determined the relationship that the size coefficient, wetting angle, and eccentricity satisfy when spherical nuclei are formed on a conical surface substrate. Therefore, the research results of this paper provide a theoretical model for selecting nucleating agents.