Calculation of solid–liquid interfacial free energy of Cu by two different methods

•The solid–liquid interfacial free energy of Cu was calculated by two different methods.•The results of two methods were compared.•The results of two methods were consistent with each other.

Both the solid–liquid interfacial free energy and Turnbull coefficient calculated by the capillary fluctuation method (CFM) are consistent with those by the critical nucleus method (CNM). The calculated solid–liquid interfacial free energy by CNM is more accurate than that by CFM, but CFM can give the anisotropy parameter of solid–liquid interfacial free energy while CNM can not. Thus, these two methods can be combined to calculate the solid–liquid interfacial free energy and its anisotropy.