Postdoc at the Departament de Física Fonamental (Departement of Fundamental Physics) of the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
My research interests are currently focussed on nucleation and viral self-assembly. These processes are studied using molecular simulations and theory in the group of Prof. David Reguera.
Abstract: The mechanism controlling the initial step of a phase transition has a tremendous influence on the emerging phase. We study the crossover from a purely nucleation-controlled transition toward spinodal decomposition in a condensing Lennard-Jones vapor using molecular dynamics simulations. We analyze both the kinetics and at the same time the thermodynamics by directly reconstructing the free energy of cluster formation. We estimate the location of the spinodal, which lies at much deeper supersaturations than expected. Moreover, the nucleation barriers we find differ only by a constant from the classical nucleation theory predictions and are in very good agreement with semiempirical scaling relations. In the regime from very small barriers to the spinodal, growth controls the rate of the transition but not its nature because the activation barrier has not yet vanished. Finally, we discuss in detail the influence of the chosen reaction coordinate on the interpretation of such simulation results.
Abstract: We compare different methods for obtaining nucleation rates from molecular dynamics simulations of nucleation, using the condensation of Lennard-Jones argon as an example. All methods yield the same nucleation rate at the conditions where they can be applied correctly, with discrepancies smaller than a factor of 2. We critically examine the different approaches and highlight their respective strengths and possible limitations.
Abstract: We investigated the homogeneous nucleation of nitrogen in a cryogenic expansion chamber [A. Fladerer and R. Strey, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 164710 (2006)]. Gas mixtures of nitrogen and helium as carrier gas were adiabatically expanded and cooled down from an initial temperature of 83 K until nucleation occurred. This onset was detected by constant angle light scattering at nitrogen vapor pressures of 1.3-14.2 kPa and temperatures of 42-54 K. An analytical fit function well describes the experimental onset pressures with an error of +/-15%. We estimate the size of the critical nucleus with the Gibbs-Thomson equation yielding critical sizes of about 50 molecules at the lowest and 70 molecules at the highest temperature. In addition, we estimate the nucleation rate and compare it with nucleation theories. The predictions of classical nucleation theory (CNT) are 9 to 19 orders of magnitude below the experimental results and show a stronger temperature dependence. The Reguera-Reiss theory [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 165701 (2004)] predicts the correct temperature dependence at low temperatures and decreases the absolute deviation to 7-13 orders of magnitude. We present an empirical correction function to CNT describing our experimental results. These correction parameters are remarkably close to the ones of argon [Iland et al., J. Chem. Phys. 127, 154506 (2007)] and even those of water [J. Wolk and R. Strey, J. Phys. Chem. B 105, 11683 (2001)].
Abstract: We present a new general method to trace back a lot of valuable information from direct simulations and experiments of activated processes. In particular, it allows the reconstruction of the free-energy landscape for an arbitrary reaction coordinate directly from the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of the process. We demonstrate the power of this concept by its application to a molecular dynamics simulation of nucleation of a Lennard-Jones vapor. The same method can be also applied to Brownian dynamics and stochastic simulations.
Abstract: The influence of the pressure of a chemically inert carrier gas on the nucleation rate is one of the biggest puzzles in the research of gas-liquid nucleation. Experiments can show a positive effect, a negative effect, or no effect at all. The same experiment may show both trends for the same substance depending on temperature, or for different substances at the same temperature. We show how this ambiguous effect naturally arises from the competition of two contributions: nonisothermal effects and pressure-volume work. Our model clarifies seemingly contradictory experimental results and quantifies the variation of the nucleation ability of a substance in the presence of an ambient gas. Our findings are corroborated by molecular dynamics simulations and might have important implications since nucleation in experiments, technical applications, and nature practically always occurs in the presence of an ambient gas.
Abstract: The influence of total pressure and kind of carrier gas on homogeneous nucleation rates of 1-pentanol was investigated using experimental method of laminar flow diffusion chamber in this study. Two different carrier gases (helium and argon) were used in the total pressure range from 50 to 400 kPa. Nucleation temperatures ranged from 265 to 290 K for 1-pentanol-helium and from 265 to 285 K for 1-pentanol-argon. Nucleation rates varied between 10(1) and 10(6) cm(-3) s(-1) for 1-pentanol-helium and between 10(2) and 10(5) cm(-3) s(-1) for 1-pentanol-argon. Both positive and slight negative pressure effects were observed depending on temperature and carrier gas. The trend of pressure effect was found similar for both carrier gases. Error analysis on thermodynamic properties was conducted, and the lowering of surface tension due to adsorption of argon on nucleated droplets was estimated. A quantitative overview of pressure effect is provided.
Abstract: We investigate the ability of different cluster definitions to serve as a good reaction coordinate in molecular simulations of nucleation. In particular, the most commonly used Stillinger criterion [J. Chem. Phys. 38, 1486 (1963)] is compared with the cluster definition introduced by ten Wolde and Frenkel [J. Chem. Phys. 109, 9901 (1998)]. The accuracy of these two different cluster definitions is tested by using molecular dynamics to study the vapor-liquid nucleation of Lennard-Jones argon as a model system. We are able to compare the size of the critical cluster identified by each cluster definition with a completely model-independent value provided by the nucleation theorem, aided by a recently introduced method that accurately extracts the location of the transition state directly from the kinetics. It is found that the Stillinger definition strongly overestimates the size of small molecular clusters by up to a factor of 2. A simple change of the Stillinger radius is unable to rectify this deficiency. On the contrary, the ten Wolde-Frenkel definition, while being only slightly more elaborate than a simple Stillinger criterion, is remarkably successful in identifying the correct molecular excess of the small clusters if the parameters are chosen adequately. The method described here can also be generalized to identify a proper reaction coordinate in other activated processes.
Abstract: We report six nucleation rate isotherms of vapor-liquid nucleation of Lennard-Jones argon from molecular dynamics simulations. The isotherms span three orders of magnitude in nucleation rates, 10(23)<J/cm(-3) s(-1)<10(26), in a temperature range of 45-70 K below the triple point. The rates are very accurately determined using the concept of mean first-passage times, which also allows a determination of the critical cluster size directly from the kinetics. The results deviate from classical nucleation theory (CNT) by two to seven orders of magnitude, which nevertheless is much smaller than the more than 20 orders of magnitude encountered in recent experiments in a similar temperature range. The extended modified liquid drop-dynamical nucleation theory (EMLD-DNT) shows excellent agreement with the simulation results with deviations of less than one order of magnitude over the entire studied temperature range. Both simulation and experiment confirm the same incorrect temperature trend of CNT, which seems to be corrected in the EMLD-DNT model. However, the predictions of CNT for the critical cluster sizes agree well with the results obtained from the simulations using the nucleation theorem, supporting the notion that CNT successfully estimates the location of the transition state but severely fails to predict its height.
Abstract: We investigate the influence of carrier gas and thermostat on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nucleation. The task of keeping the temperature constant in MD simulations is not trivial and an inefficient thermalization may have a strong influence on the results. Different thermostating mechanisms have been proposed and used in the past. In particular, we analyze the efficiency of velocity rescaling, Nose-Hoover, and a carrier gas (mimicking the experimental situation) by extensive MD simulations. Since nucleation is highly sensitive to temperature, one would expect that small variations in temperature might lead to differences in nucleation rates of up to several orders of magnitude. Surprisingly, the results indicate that the choice of the thermostating method in a simulation does not have--at least in the case of Lennard-Jones argon--a very significant influence on the nucleation rate. These findings are interpreted in the context of the classical theory of Feder et al. [Adv. Phys. 15, 111 (1966)] by analyzing the temperature distribution of the nucleating clusters. We find that the distribution of cluster temperatures is non-Gaussian and that subcritically sized clusters are colder while postcritically sized clusters are warmer than the bath temperature. However, the average temperature of all clusters is found to be always higher than the bath temperature.
Abstract: We present a new method to analyze molecular and Brownian dynamics simulations of activated processes based on the concept of mean first-passage times. The new method provides a simple and efficient strategy to evaluate reaction rates and it facilitates the localization of the transition state directly from the kinetics of the system without the need of thermodynamical considerations. It also provides a more rigorous value of the steady-state transition rate and gives valuable information about many important characteristics of the process. We illustrate the power of this new technique by its application to the study of nucleation in rare gases.
Abstract: We investigate the importance of finite-size effects in simulations of nucleation processes. Most molecular dynamics simulations of first order phase transitions, such as vapor-liquid nucleation, are performed in the canonical NVT ensemble where, owing to the fixed total number of molecules N, the growth of the new phase causes the depletion of the metastable phase. This effect may lead to significant errors in the simulation and even to the impossibility of observing nucleation in a small finite system. We present a theory to estimate the system size beyond which these finite-size effects are expected to be negligible. This optimization saves valuable calculation time and can extend the range of supersaturations and rates attainable by simulations by several orders of magnitude. Our results are applicable to diverse situations, such as crystallization, capillary condensation, or the melting of nanoclusters.
Abstract: We have measured isothermal homogeneous nucleation rates J for 1-pentanol vapor in two different carrier-gases, argon, and helium, using a two-valve nucleation pulse chamber. The nucleation rates cover a range of 10(5)<J/cm(-3) s(-1)<10(9) at temperatures between 235<T/K<265. We observed no influence of the carrier gas on location and slope of the nucleation rate isotherms. These measurements are part of an international effort to examine 1-pentanol using various experimental techniques, which was initiated in Prague in 1995. In the present paper nucleation rate data obtained by several groups are compared to each other and to the classical nucleation theory. As expected, the classical theory is not able to quantitatively predict the experimental results. Nevertheless, relating the experimental data to the classical theory provides a suitable way to compare data of widely differing nucleation rates obtained by different experimental techniques. This comparison helps judging mutual support of the data and, at the same time, provides a rather interesting insight into the accuracy of the individual experimental techniques.
Abstract: Nucleation is the first step in most first-order phase transitions and determines many properties of the new phase, which are of great interest in many fields of science and technology. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations (MD) are used to study the homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation of argon below the triple point. First, a new method for the precise determination of nucleation rates from MD simulations is developed based on the concept of mean first-passage times. Second, a detailed study of the influence of different thermostats is performed. Third, a study of finite-size effects enables an optimization of the systems in terms of their size. Using this knowledge, six nucleation rate isotherms are obtained for the first time in the literature, thus facilitating the use of the nucleation theorem to deduct the critical cluster size. The rates are based on more than 7500 simulations, spanning three orders of magnitude about 23 < log(J / cm^3s) < 26 in a temperature range of 45-70 K. The results deviate from the classical nucleation theory by 2-7 orders of magnitude, which is much smaller than the more than 26 orders of magnitude encountered in recent experiments. The critical cluster sizes obtained from the nucleation theorem agree well with the prediction of the Gibbs-Thomson equation, again supporting the notion that classical nucleation theory succeeds in estimating the location of the nucleation barrier but severely fails to predict its height. The recently proposed theory by Reguera and Reiss shows excellent agreement with the MD results.
