Precipitate nucleation: does capillarity theory work?

Abstract

The energetic aspects of the classical (capillarity) theory of homogeneous precipitation kinetics, as proposed by Russell, have been tested using a method owing to Kashchiev and the extensive set of data on Cu—Co alloys published by LeGoues and Aaronson. It was concluded that heterogeneous nucleation occurred in at least two of the three alloys studied by the latter authors. The values of both incubation time and maximum cluster density are compared with theoretical predictions and are found to agree reasonably well. More detailed research is needed, particularly on the subject of the incubation time.