Composition of critical clusters in ternary nucleation of water–n-nonane–n-butanol

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Abstract
In previous papers the determination of the molecular contents of critical clusters has been performed. Both unary and binary vapor mixtures have been examined. This paper describes the first study of a ternary system. Using a nucleation pulse chamber accurate measurements of homogeneous nucleation rates (105<J/cm−3 s−1<109) of mixed droplets in supersaturated, ternary mixtures of water, n-nonane and n-butanol vapor have been performed. The examined gas phase activities, a1, a2, and a3, respectively, covered the whole ternary composition space at T=240 K. The observed variations of the cluster compositions with vapor phase composition differ substantially from that of ideal mixtures. The experiments seem to indicate phase separation within the critical clusters. The arrangement of the molecules in the cluster remains to be clarified.