The dimer stage of nucleation may affect considerably the rate of the nucleation process at high supersaturation of the nucleating vapor. Assuming that the dimer formation limits the nucleation rate, the kinetics of the particle formation–growth process is studied starting with the definition of dimers as bound states of two associating molecules. The partition function of dimer states is calculated by summing the Boltzmann factor over all classical bound states, and the equilibrium population of dimers is found for two types of intermolecular forces: the Lennard-Jones (LJ) and rectangular well+hard core (RW) potentials. The principle of detailed balance is used for calculating the evaporation rate of dimers. The kinetics of the particle formation–growth process is then investigated under the assumption that the trimers are stable with respect to evaporation and that the condensation rate is a power function of the particle mass. If the power exponent $\lambda =n/(n+1\mathrm{})\mathrm{}\hspace{0.5em}(n$ is a non-negative integer), the kinetics of the process is described by a finite set of moments of particle mass distribution. When the characteristic time of the particle formation by nucleation is much shorter than that of the condensational growth, $n+2\mathrm{}$ universal functions of a nondimensional time define the kinetic process. These functions are calculated for $\lambda =2/3\mathrm{}$ (gas-to-particle conversion in the free molecular regime) and $\lambda =1/2\mathrm{}$ (formation of islands on surfaces).

• Received 18 March 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.58.3157