Direct measurement of curvature-dependent surface tension of an alcohol nanomeniscus

Surface tension is a key parameter for understanding nucleation in the very initial stage of phase transformation. Although surface tension has been predicted to vary with the curvature of the liquid-vapor interface, particularly at the large curvature of, e.g., the subnanometric critical nucleus, experimental study still remains challenging due to inaccessibility to such a small cluster. Here, by directly measuring the critical size of a single capillary-condensed nanomeniscus using atomic force microscopy, we address the curvature dependence of surface tension of alcohols and observe that the surface tension is doubled for ethanol and n-propanol with a radius-of-curvature of ∼-0.46 nm. We also find that the interface of larger negative (positive) curvature exhibits larger (smaller) surface tension, which evidently governs nucleation at the ∼1 nm scale and below, indicating more facilitated nucleation than normally expected. Such well characterized curvature effects contribute to better understanding and accurate analysis of nucleation occurring in various fields including materials science and atmospheric science.