Vanishing linear term in chemical potential difference in volume term of work of critical nucleus formation for phase transition without volume change

•We consider nucleation for phase transition without volume change.•The volume term of work of formation of critical nucleus is calculated.•It is expressed in terms of chemical potential difference relative to equilibrium.•The result is not of the form of nΔμnΔμ.•Instead, it includes the second order term as a leading order.

A question is given on the form n(μβ−μα)n(μβ−μα) for the volume term of work of formation of critical nucleus. Here, n   is the number of molecule undergone the phase transition, μμ denotes the chemical potential, αα and ββ represent the parent and nucleating phases, respectively. In this paper we concentrate phase transition without volume change. We have calculated the volume term in terms of the chemical potential difference μre−μeqμre−μeq for this case. Here, μreμre is the chemical potential of the reservoir and μeqμeq that at the phase transition. We haveWvol=−κβ−κα2veq2(μre−μeq)2Vβwith κκ denoting the isothermal compressibility, veq being the molecular volume at the phase transition, VβVβ the volume of the nucleus.