Divergence of Tolman's length for a droplet near the critical point.
The application of "complete scaling" [Kim et al., Phys. Rev. E 67, 061506 (2003); Anisimov and Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 025703 (2006)] to the interfacial behavior of fluids shows that Tolman's length, a curvature correction to the surface tension, diverges at the critical point of fluids much more strongly than is commonly believed. The amplitude of the divergence depends on the degree of asymmetry in fluid phase coexistence. In highly asymmetric fluids and fluid mixtures the Tolman length may become large enough to significantly affect the interfacial behavior.
Anisimov
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Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Institute for Physical Science & Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. anisimov@umd.edu