Kinetic theory of steady chemical nucleation in the gas phase

Abstract

We develop a kinetic theory of nucleation involving chemical reactions in the gas phase. For the basis of deriving the chemical nucleation rate, chemical kinetic considerations are presented on the steady current density and the effective rate constants of the overall reaction, which is a sum of a sequential elementary reactions. We formulate the steady rate of chemical nucleation in a multi-component vapor, in which nucleation occurs via the chemical reactions yielding a condensate having a stoichiometric composition. An exact expression of the steady nucleation rate is given together with its approximate formulas for practical applications. The present formulation is not concerned with any particular cluster model. The supersaturation ratio for a many-component vapor is defined so as to be a natural extension of that for a one-component vapor. It is shown that the transition probabilities due to growth and decay of the clusters are of the same form as the growth and evaporation rates in a one-component vapor.