Electronic screening using a virtual Thomas-Fermi fluid for predicting wetting and phase transitions of ionic liquids at metal surfaces

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schlaich, Alexander, Jin, Dongliang, Bocquet, Lydéric, Coasne, Benoit
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866910386907774976
author Schlaich, Alexander
Jin, Dongliang
Bocquet, Lydéric
Coasne, Benoit
author_facet Schlaich, Alexander
Jin, Dongliang
Bocquet, Lydéric
Coasne, Benoit
contents Of relevance to energy storage, electrochemistry and catalysis, ionic and dipolar liquids display unexpected behaviours-especially in confinement. Beyond adsorption, over-screening and crowding effects, experiments have highlighted novel phenomena, such as unconventional screening and the impact of the electronic nature-metallic versus insulating - of the confining surface. Such behaviours, which challenge existing frameworks, highlight the need for tools to fully embrace the properties of confined liquids. Here we introduce a novel approach that involves electronic screening while capturing molecular aspects of interfacial fluids. Although available strategies consider perfect metal or insulator surfaces, we build on the Thomas-Fermi formalism to develop an effective approach that deals with any imperfect metal between these asymptotes. Our approach describes electrostatic interactions within the metal through a 'virtual' Thomas-Fermi fluid of charged particles, whose Debye length sets the screening length $λ$. We show that this method captures the electrostatic interaction decay and electrochemical behaviour on varying $λ$. By applying this strategy to an ionic liquid, we unveil a wetting transition on switching from insulating to metallic conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2002_11526
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Electronic screening using a virtual Thomas-Fermi fluid for predicting wetting and phase transitions of ionic liquids at metal surfaces
Schlaich, Alexander
Jin, Dongliang
Bocquet, Lydéric
Coasne, Benoit
Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Soft Condensed Matter
Computational Physics
Of relevance to energy storage, electrochemistry and catalysis, ionic and dipolar liquids display unexpected behaviours-especially in confinement. Beyond adsorption, over-screening and crowding effects, experiments have highlighted novel phenomena, such as unconventional screening and the impact of the electronic nature-metallic versus insulating - of the confining surface. Such behaviours, which challenge existing frameworks, highlight the need for tools to fully embrace the properties of confined liquids. Here we introduce a novel approach that involves electronic screening while capturing molecular aspects of interfacial fluids. Although available strategies consider perfect metal or insulator surfaces, we build on the Thomas-Fermi formalism to develop an effective approach that deals with any imperfect metal between these asymptotes. Our approach describes electrostatic interactions within the metal through a 'virtual' Thomas-Fermi fluid of charged particles, whose Debye length sets the screening length $λ$. We show that this method captures the electrostatic interaction decay and electrochemical behaviour on varying $λ$. By applying this strategy to an ionic liquid, we unveil a wetting transition on switching from insulating to metallic conditions.
title Electronic screening using a virtual Thomas-Fermi fluid for predicting wetting and phase transitions of ionic liquids at metal surfaces
topic Chemical Physics
Materials Science
Soft Condensed Matter
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11526