A new model for homogeneous nucleation of structural phase transformations, which can span the range of nucleation from classical to nonclassical, is presented. This model is extended from the classical nucleation theory by introducing driving-force dependencies into the interfacial free energy, themisfit strain energy, and the nucleus chemical free-energy change in order to capture the nonclas...

Forced convection boiling in microchannels is studied experimentally under the uniform heat flux boundary condition. Several microchannel heat sinks with integrated temperature sensors, spanning two orders of magnitude in height 5–500 μm, have been fabricated with designed nucleation sites on the bottom surfaces. The microchannels are capped by a glass wafer to monitor bubble activity using vid...

Despite recent advances in monitoring nucleation from a vapor at close-to-molecular resolution, the identity of the critical cluster, forming the bottleneck for the nucleation process, remains elusive. During past twenty years, the first nucleation theorem has been often used to extract the size of the critical cluster from nucleation rate measurements. However, derivations of the first nucleat...

Recent experimental [Diao et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011 133, 3756.] and simulation results [Sear, J. Phys. Cond. Matt. 2012 24, 052205.] are not consistent with a nucleation rate that is in the thermodynamic limit. This has consequences, if the rate is not in the thermodynamic limit, the time for nucleation will not necessarily scale as one over system size. Here, I show how to analyse data fo...

in this research, a sol-modified composite electrodeposition technique that combines the sol-gel method with the conventional electrodeposition process was utilized to deposit ni-tio2 nanocomposite coatings. cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques were applied to study the influence of the tio2 sol concentration on the deposits’ electrochemical behavior. the results clearly showed t...

Nucleation of a new phase almost always starts at a surface. This surface is almost always assumed not to change with time. However, surfaces can roughen, partially dissolve, and change chemically with time. Each of these irreversible changes will change the nucleation rate at the surface, resulting in a time-dependent nucleation rate. Here we use a simple model to show that partial surface dis...

The mechanical properties of cells change as they proceed through the cell cycle, primarily owing to regulation of actin and myosin II. Most models for cell mechanics focus on actomyosin in the cortex and ignore possible roles in bulk cytoplasm. We explored cell cycle regulation of bulk cytoplasmic actomyosin in Xenopus egg extracts, which is almost undiluted cytoplasm from unfertilized eggs. W...

This paper presents an updated and systematic overview of the recent development in studies on nucleation process in diamond CVD. The nucleation mechanisms are discussed, and the nucleation enhancement methods developed to date are summarized. The effects of surface conditions and deposition parameters on the surface nucleation are described. Finally, a brief description of theoretical and mode...

γ-Tubulin nucleates microtubules (MTs) in all eukaryotes and acts in complex with an array of related accessory proteins. It exists in at least two types of complexes inside cells: a ~300kDa γ-Tubulin Small Complex (γTuSC), which can assemble to form a ~2.2MDa γ-Tubulin Ring Complex (γTuRC). In vitro MT nucleation assays have shown that the γTuRC is a more potent nucleator than γTuSC. Interesti...