The laws of establishing stationary composition in a droplet condensing in a binary vapor–gas environment

Abstract

It is shown that the mole fractions of components within a droplet growing in an atmosphere of two condensing gases and a carrier gas approach their stationary values with a power-law behavior in time on a large scale and with exponential behavior on a small scale for both diffusion-controlled and free-molecular regimes of isothermal condensation. The parameters of the power and the exponential laws are specified for each regime of binary condensation and are linked to the thermodynamic and kinetic characteristics of condensing vapors and to the stationary mole fractions of the components in a growing binary droplet. The stationary composition of the solution within the droplet is shown to be established at a comparatively small relative increase of the droplet radius. A relaxation equation for the droplet composition at arbitrary initial deviations of mole fractions from their stationary values has been solved, and the limitations on the initial deviations allowing monotonic establishment of stationary composition in solution within a growing droplet have been considered.