Vapour-to-Liquid Nucleation in Associating Lennard-Jones Fluids with Multiple Association Sites

The excess Helmholtz free energy functional for associating Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluid is formulated in terms of a weighted density approximation for short-ranged interactions and a Weeks--Chandler--Andersen approximation for long-range attraction. Within the framework of density functional theory, phase equilibria, vapour--liquid surface tension and vapour--liquid nucleation properties including the density profile, work of formation, excess number of
particles and critical supersaturation are investigated for associating LJ fluids with different numbers of association sites (M =1, 2, 3, 4) per particle. The influences of association energy and association sites on phase equilibria, surface tension and vapour-liquid nucleation properties are discussed.