Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol.98, No.16, 4443-4453, 1994
Effects of Background Gases on the Homogeneous Nucleation of Vapors .1.
Using an upward thermal diffusion cloud chamber specially designed for operation at elevated pressures and temperatures, we have observed a strong dependence of the homogeneous nucleation of 1-propanol vapor on total pressure. In our investigation, this dependence is manifested in increasing values of the measured S-crit (critical supersaturation) of 1-propanol with increasing total pressure. The increase in total pressure is accomplished by increasing the amount of a carrier (or background) gas in the diffusion cloud chamber. The observed increase in measured S-crit implies that the homogeneous nucleation rate of 1-propanol decreases dramatically as the total pressure increases. We have observed a significant dependence on the nature of the carrier gas. The effect of increasing total pressure on the nucleation of 1-propanol is greater using helium as the carrier gas than when hydrogen is used. We also observe that the dependence of S-crit on total pressure (as manifested by the slope of the S-crit vs P-tot data at constant temperature) is temperature dependent. The measured slope of the S-crit vs P-tot dependence increases as the temperature decreases. In addition, we present S-crit vs temperature data for the 1-propanol/helium system that appear to span the widest range of temperatures to date.
Keywords:2-PISTON EXPANSION CHAMBER;HE-OCTAFLUOROCYCLOBUTANE;SUPERSATURATED VAPOR;PRESSURE-DEPENDENCE;N-NONANE;CONDENSATION;TEMPERATURE;ETHANOL;WATER;RANGE