Interfacial Layering in the Electric Double Layer of Ionic Liquids

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2020, 125, 116001

J. Pedro de Souza, Zachary A. H. Goodwin, Michael McEldrew, Alexei A. Kornyshev, and Martin Z. Bazant

 

The abstract reads as follows: Ions in ionic liquids and concentrated electrolytes reside in a crowded, strongly interacting environment, leading to the formation of discrete layers of charges at interfaces and spin-glass structure in the bulk. Here, we propose a simple theory that captures the coupling between steric and electrostatic forces in ionic liquids. The theory predicts the formation of discrete layers of charge at charged interfaces. Further from the interface, or at low polarization of the electrode, the model outputs slowly decaying oscillations in the charge density with a wavelength of a single ion diameter, as shown by analysis of the gradient expansion. The gradient expansion suggests a new structure for partial differential equations describing the electrostatic potential at charged interfaces. We find quantitative agreement between the theory and molecular simulations in the differential capacitance and concentration profiles.

Support for simulations is acknowledged from the Center for Enhanced Nanofluidic Transport, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award # desc0019112.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.116001