Liquid nucleation of surface-free crystal from nanovoids

According to the classical nucleation theory, an estimation for homogeneous nucleation temperature of liquid from nanovoids within a surface-free bulk material is developed by considering energetic contributions of surface (interface) energy and surface (interface) stress on total Gibbs free energy. The model predicts a kinetic superheating limit temperature T max , which is larger than the corresponding bulk value of T m 0 and is a function of void size. The increase of T max is enhanced as the nanovoid size decreases, which can well explain the molecular dynamics simulation results of melting points T m of argon crystal.