Critical cavities and the kinetic spinodal for superheated liquids

We present density-functional theory (DFT) calculations for critical cavities inside model superheated liquids with varying intermolecular potentials. Our calculations show that the radius of the critical cavity and the ratio of the work of formation of the critical cavity to the work of formation of the critical bubble as predicted by the classical nucleation theory exhibit universal scaling across similar intermolecular potentials. We then utilize this observed scaling behavior by proposing two new criteria for the kinetic spinodal of superheated liquids. These criteria are based on various properties of the critical cavity as obtained from our DFT studies of the superheated Lenanrd-Jones liquid. Our predictions of the kinetic spinodal compare favorably with experimental data of the limits of superheating for various organic liquids. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.