Molecular-sized bubbles in a liquid: Free energy of formation beyond the capillarity approximation

We investigate the transient bubbles that spontaneously appear in a simple liquid using molecular simulations. The objective is to deduce the free-energy of formation of the bubbles W(s) from the bubble size distribution p(s) through the hypothesis of a Boltzmann distribution: W(s) = -kT ln p(s). The bubbles are detected and characterized using a method based on a grid superimposed on the liquid, efficient for bubbles larger than the grid mesh. We first investigate how the results are affected by the mesh choice and show that using several mesh values allows for the detection of bubbles in a wide range of sizes with minimal computing cost. The free-energy of formation of a bubble can then be deduced for a large range of sizes, with particular emphasis on the region of vanishing bubbles scarcely investigated in previous works. We first show that the usual Boltzmann relation has to be modified when the bubble size is characterized by its volume. In particular, the bubble volume distribution diverges for a vanishing bubble, which should be taken into account before calculating its free-energy of formation from the above formula. An analytical expansion, valid for any interacting spherical molecules, confirms this observation. We then show that the capillarity approximation fails for small bubbles: an extra contribution, linear with the bubble radius, has to be added to the usual quadratic (surface) and cubic (volume) contributions to the free-energy. This extra term most probably relates to the irregular shape of the tiny bubbles.