Steady-state homogeneous nucleation of the sulfuric acid–water system

Homogeneous nucleation of highly non-ideal liquid solutions is examined using an analytical method to obtain the steady-state nucleation flux. The theory is applied to the water–sulfuric acid binary system. The method for obtaining the nucleation flux is based on the solution of a Fokker–Planck equation for the concentration of clusters where both number (size) and cluster-energy fluctuations are included. The Fokker–Planck equation is solved in the vicinity of the saddle point. The kinetic prefactor is found to depend on the product of the three eigenvalues of a matrix that describes fluctuations about the critical cluster. Contrary to more ideal binary systems (such as the ethanol–water system), the model predicts considerable higher nucleation rates compared to the classical nucleation theory.