Crystal nucleation for a model of globular proteins

Abstract

A continuum model of globular proteins proposed by Talanquer and Oxtoby (J. Chem. Phys. vol. 109, p. 223 (1998)) is investigated numerically, with particular emphasis on the region near the metastable fluid-fluid coexistence curve. Classical nucleation theory is shown to be invalid not only in the vicinity of the metastable critical point but also close to the liquidus line. An approximate analytic solution is also presented for the shape and properties of the nucleating crystal droplet.

15 pages, 16 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Nucleation of a non-critical phase in a fluid near a critical point
• Scaling theory for the free-energy barrier to homogeneous nucleation of a non-critical phase near a critical point

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• Density Functional Theory of Inhomogeneous Liquids: III. Liquid-Vapor Nucleation
• A dynamical theory of homogeneous nucleation for colloids and macromolecules
• Free-energy landscape of nucleation with an intermediate metastable phase studied using capillarity approximation
• Theoretical description of the nucleation of vapor bubbles in a superheated fluid
• The effect of the range of interaction on the phase diagram of a globular protein
• Ginzburg-Landau theory of the liquid-solid interface and nucleation for hard-spheres
• The low-density/high-density liquid phase transition for model globular proteins