Theory of nucleated wetting

We compare a new theory of nucleated wetting with experimental data for the critical liquid mixture hexadecane+acetone. Good agreement is obtained for t{≥}8×{}10^-5. We determine that the droplet line tension scrL=scrL₀{t}ˣ$ where ${scrL}₀~1×{10}^{{{-}}7}erg/cm and x=0.76±0.02 while the spreading pressure S{S}₀t₁^β where S₀{~}0.007 erg/cm². Theory and experiment exhibit a minimum in the nucleation data at a reduced temperature of tₘ ({}0.000 22 for an upper hexadecane-rich bulk phase of height L=0.56 cm); theory predicts that tₘ scales as {~}L₁^2/3(β-{β}).