Classical nucleation theory for the nucleation of the solid phase of spherical particles with a short-ranged attraction

Abstract

Classical nucleation theory is used to estimate the free-energy barrier to nucleation of the solid phase of particles interacting via a potential which has a short-ranged attraction. Due to the high interfacial tension between the fluid and solid phases, this barrier is very large, much larger than in hard spheres. It is divergent in the limit that the range of the attraction tends to zero. We predict an upper limit on nucleation in good agreement with the results of experiments on the crystallisation of proteins.