Hot Clusters in Supersaturated Vapor
D. I. Zhukhovitskii
Joint Institute of High Temperatures,
Russian Academy of Sciences,
Izhorskaya ul. 13, Bd. 2, Moscow, 125412 Russia
Abstract—At relatively high temperatures (higher than the melting temperature of a liquid), clusters that are present in the supersaturated vapor are characterized by an intense internal motion of molecules. Investigation of clusters in such states is within the scope of this Chapter. The virtual chains model is proposed, which assumes that the number of bonds in small clusters is minimal, and their structure is chainlike. The thermodynamic model describing cluster properties for an arbitrary law of the interaction between molecules and the size-corrected nucleation theory are developed on this basis. Validity of model assumptions are verified by the numerical simulations using molecular dynamics in an ensemble with constant average temperature and pressure. Simulation results are discussed, among which are the cluster critical size, internal energy, radial distribution function, and topological structure of clusters. Numerical results validate the main assumptions of proposed model.