Nucleation

The rate of nucleation is the rate of new particles formed per unit
time per unit volume of magma or solids-free mother liquor.
Nucleation is split into two mechanisms, primary nucleation and
secondary nucleation.
Primary nucleation
Is independent of crystal presence split into two subsections,
homogenous (spontaneous) and heterogeneous (facilitated by alien
substances).
Homogenous nucleation:
Nucleation without preferential nucleation sites, homogeneous
nucleation occurs spontaneously and randomly, but it requires
superheating or super cooling of the medium. Nuclei are in a state
of unstable equilibrium; if a nucleas looses units it dissolves and if it
gains units it becomes a crystal.
Cluster Embryo Nucleus Crystal
Ostwald ripening is a concept that explains nucleation,
thermodynamically the difference between a smaller crystal and a
large one is that the smaller one contains a much larger surface
area per unit mass this causes an unstable equilibrium with a
supersaturated solution causing the small crystal to dissolve and
leaving the larger one to grow.
The solubility of a substance is related to it particle size by Kelvin
equation:
ln =

4Vm
vRTL

Heterogeneous Nucleation
Heterogeneous nucleation occurs much more often than
homogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation applies to the
phase transformation between any two phases of gas, liquid, or
solid, typically for example, condensation of gas/vapor, solidification
from liquid, and bubble formation from liquid. Theoretically the
nucleus wets the surface of the catalyst and the work of nucleus
formation is reduced by a fraction that is proportional to the angle of
wetting.