Spontaneous Nucleation in Superheated Helium Solutions in Methane

• Published in: Colloid journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2019-05, Vol.81 (3), p.211-218
• Main Author: Baidakov, V. G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Helium; Methane; Nucleation; Polymer Sciences; Reaction kinetics; Saturn; Superheating; Surface tension; Surfaces and Interfaces; Temperature dependence; Thin Films
• ISSN: 1061-933X; 1608-3067
• DOI: 10.1134/S1061933X19030037

The kinetics of spontaneous boiling of liquid methane saturated with helium has been studied in experiments on measuring the lifetime of the superheated liquid. The temperature dependence of nucleation frequency J has been determined in a range from 10 4 to 10 8 s –1 m –3 at pressures = 1.6 and 2.0 MPa and helium concentrations in liquid methane = 0.06 and 0.10 mol %. The experimental results have been compared with the data of the classical nucleation theory. As in the case of pure methane, the solution superheating temperatures reached in the experiments at J > 4 × 10 6 s –1 m –3 appear to be systematically lower (by 0.6–1.0 K) than their theoretical values. It has been shown that the discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental data is associated with the size dependence of the surface tension at the critical bubble–solution interface.