Suppression of cavitation-induced nucleation in systems under isochoric confinement

Abstract

Stabilization of supercooled liquids presents a fundamental challenge with broad practical implications. Here, we unify divergent aspects of bubble dynamics, thermodynamics, and nucleation theory to explore the influence of confinement on cavitation-induced nucleation, a principal destabilization mechanism in supercooled systems. We demonstrate that confinement can suppress cavity collapse even in remarkably large systems and reveal the existence of critical volumes at which cavitation-induced nucleation becomes entirely kinetically prohibited, suggesting confinement as a compelling route towards modulation of kinetic phase change processes.