Fig. 3: Transitions in the nucleation rate during the THF clathrate formation on 31 nm, 38 nm and 46 nm GO nanosheets anchored glass substrates, respectively.
a–c The top panels show the (average) delay time tD of clathrate hydrates of THF-water mixture as the applied constant temperature (and corresponding supercooling shown in top x-axis) for a few n values (the relative number of GO nanosheets as the nucleation sites), and the bottom panels show τ = ntD for the same data in the top, as the GO size of 31 nm (black), 38 nm (red), 46 nm (blue), respectively. Abrupt changes (transitions) of the THF clathrate hydrate nucleation activity of GO nanosheets at specific supercooling value depending on the size of applied GO nanosheets. Every average clathrate hydrate nucleation delay time in (a–c) shows mean ± SEM. For the GO coverage of n = 0.14, the mean values were averaged from 36 measurements. For every other GO coverage (n = 1, n = 0.25 and n = 0.18), the mean values were averaged from 39 measurements. d The \(J\,=\frac{1}{\tau }\) gives the nucleation rate of the clathrate on the unit number of GO nanosheets. Black – 31 nm GO, red – 38 nm G, blue – 46 nm GO. The insets show the illustrations of the critical clathrate nucleus on nanosheets as the size of GO nanosheet is smaller (top-left) or larger (top-right) than the spherical diameter of critical clathrate nucleus 2Rc, respectively, based on the classical nucleation theory. Every average clathrate hydrate nucleation delay time in (d) is processed from (a–c), and shows mean ± SEM. For the GO coverage of n = 0.14, the mean values were averaged from 36 measurements. For every other GO coverage (n = 1, n = 0.25 and n = 0.18), the mean values were averaged from 39 measurements.
