Heterogeneous Nucleation onto Ions and Neutralized Ions: Insights into Sign-Preference

Heterogeneous nucleation of vapor on a seed particle surface is dependent on the seed properties such as size, chemical composition, and electric charging state, of which the significance of the charging state has not been uncovered unambiguously. The underlying problem is that, on the molecular level, the charging state and the chemical composition of the seed are connected and cannot be well separated without a direct mass spectrometric measurement of the ion. By generating sub-3 nm size selected seeds of different size, chemical composition, electric charging state, and letting three different vapors nucleate onto the seeds, we show that heterogeneous nucleation does not clearly prefer either positive or negative seeds. Rather, the most important parameter determining the nucleation probability in the sub-3 nm size range was the seed chemical composition. Our findings help to understand the dynamics in various nanoparticle systems, such as nucleation chambers, industrial processes, or atmospheric aerosols.