CNT effective interfacial energy and pre-exponential kinetic factor from measured NaCl crystal nucleation time distributions in contracting microdroplets

Nucleation, the birth of a stable cluster from disorder, is inherently stochastic. Yet up to date, there are no quantitative studies on NaCl nucleation that accounts for its stochastic nature. Here, we report the first stochastic treatment of NaCl-water nucleation kinetics. Using a recently developed microfluidic system and evaporation model, our measured interfacial energies extracted from a modified Poisson distribution of nucleation time show an excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, analysis of nucleation parameters in 0.5 pL, 1.5pL and 5.5 pL microdroplets reveals an interesting interplay between kinetic confinement and shifting of nucleation mechanisms. Overall, our findings highlight the need to treat nucleation stochastically rather deterministically to bridge the gap between theory and experiment.

Automated summary

In this study, we present the first stochastic treatment of NaCl-water nucleation kinetics using a recently developed microfluidic system and evaporation model. Our experimental results show an excellent agreement between the measured interfacial energies, extracted from a modified Poisson distribution of nucleation time, and theoretical predictions. Additionally, our analysis of nucleation parameters in microdroplets of different sizes reveals an interesting interplay between kinetic confinement and shifting of nucleation mechanisms. Overall, our findings emphasize the importance of treating nucleation stochastically rather than deterministically to bridge the gap between theory and experiment.