Kinetics of Heterogeneous Nucleation

Consider a phase transition α⇄β. Stable β‐embryos can be retained in the temperature range of α‐stability in cavities of suitable extraneous solids present in the system. Retained β‐embryos may nucleate the α→β‐transformation in the range of β‐stability.Using these concepts a theory for the effect of thermal history upon the kinetics of phase transformations is proposed. The kinetics of heterogeneous nucleation in the absence of retained embryos is discussed.