Drop formation on insoluble particles

Abstract

Nucleation of liquid from the vapor is a process of drop formation. When condensation does not proceed according to a nucleation process, another explanation for the formation of drops is required. In this paper it is shown that an adsorbed monolayer contains enough liquid to account for the number of droplets observed in condensation experiments. Furthermore it is shown that there are no thermodynamic objections against spontaneous drop formation on an adsorbed layer as a result of continued adsorption at a critical saturation ratio. An experiment is cited as evidence for drop formation on insoluble aerosol particles without nucleation.