Droplet growth by molecular diffusion

C.A. CONDAT; G.J. SIBONA; C.E. BUDDE

St. Louis, MO (EE.UU.)

Conferencia; "March Meeting", American Physical Society; 1996

American Physical Society

The growth of a droplet at the surface of a critical binary mixture is investigated assuming that it is controlled by the absorption of diffusing molecules. The droplet can be modeled by a perfect or an imperfect trap. If only molecules initially at the surface contribute to the droplet growth, a steady state is reached in which the droplet radius grows as t1/2. This result may be surprising, since it is known that no steady state is possible for a trap of fixed radius in two dimensions. However, the fixed radius problem is marginal, and allowing the trap radius to grow leads to the onset of the steady state. The influence of molecules reaching the surface from the liquid bulk is also analyzed.