Decay of metastable phase on several types of heterogeneous centers

Abstract

A system of a metastable phase with several sorts of the heterogeneous centers is considered. An analytical theory for the process of decay in such a system has been constructed. The free energy of formation of the critical embryo is assumed to be known in the macroscopic approach as well as the energy of solvatation. The process is split into some periods and the analytical description of every period is given. The most difficult to describe is the period of the essential formation of the embryos of a new phase. At first some asymptotes are investigated and then a general solution is suggested. Several approximate transformations are accomplished with the corresponding numerical estimates and some analytical justifications.