On the variation of the interfacial tension with cluster size in connection to homogeneous nucleation from the vapor phase

The size correction to the interfacial tension as used in phenomenological vapor phase nucleation theories is compared to expressions derived from Helfrich’s curvature free energy. This leads to a clear physical interpretation of the expansion parameters. It is shown that a set of parameters in the phenomenological free energy of a cluster are not independent. Consequences on existing theories of vapor phase nucleation are discussed.