Semiphenomenological effective-medium theory of multicomponent nucleation

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Abstract
We propose an effective-medium approach for homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation of multicomponent mixtures in the regime of retrograde condensation. Transformation to an effective unary system is accompanied by renormalization of the surface tension. We formulate a generalized Fisher droplet model [M. E. Fisher, Physics 3, 255 (1967)] for the cluster distribution in the effective system. A closed-form expression for the nucleation rate is obtained within the framework of the kinetic approach to nucleation. The theory contains no adjustable parameters. Two- and four-component mixtures of hydrocarbons are studied and theoretical predictions are compared with available experimental data.