Vapor Phase Nucleation, The Consistent Molecular Cluster, Theory and Associated Experiments

赖斯教授得到了实验物理化学项目的资助，用于成核的实验和理论研究。成核是指太小而无法观察的分子聚集成核的过程，其他分子在气相中凝结在其上，最终形成液滴。这些实验是在云室中进行的，目的是在分子水平上了解物理星团本身以及形成它的物理过程。本研究的理论和实验研究涉及到汽相成核的分子理论，能够定量地预测在实际条件下单组分和多组分体系均相成核的临界过饱和度。对乙烯基聚合物气相成核的研究将基于相同的理论。该理论包括识别与成核物理过程一致的物理团簇，并用蒙特卡罗模拟对该团簇进行分析。

Professor Reiss is supported by a grant from the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program for the experimental and theoretical investigation of nucleation, the process by which an aggregate of molecules too small to be observed becomes the nucleus upon which other molecules condense in the vapor phase, which leads eventually to the formation of a liquid droplet. The experiments are carried out in a cloud chamber, and the goal is the understanding at the molecular level of the physical cluster itself and the physical process by which it is formed. The theoretical and experimental studies in this research involve a molecular theory of vapor phase nucleation, capable of quantitative prediction of critical supersaturation for homogeneous nucleation in single and multicomponent systems under conditions of practical interest. Studies of vapor phase nucleation of vinyl polymers will be based on the same theory. The theory involves the identification of the physical cluster consistent with the physical process of nucleation and the analysis of that cluster with Monte Carlo simulation.