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Main Authors: Zubeltzu, Jon, Bresme, Fernando, Dawber, Matthew, Fernandez-Serra, Marivi, Artacho, Emilio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.01347
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author Zubeltzu, Jon
Bresme, Fernando
Dawber, Matthew
Fernandez-Serra, Marivi
Artacho, Emilio
author_facet Zubeltzu, Jon
Bresme, Fernando
Dawber, Matthew
Fernandez-Serra, Marivi
Artacho, Emilio
contents Recent experiments show that the relative dielectric constant $ε$ of water confined to a film of nanometric thickness reaches a strikingly low value of 2.1, barely above the bulk's 1.8 value for the purely electronic response. We argue that $ε$ is not a well-defined measure for dielectric properties at sub-nanometer scales due to the ambiguous definition of confinement width. Instead we propose the 2D polarizability $α_{\perp}$ as the appropriate, well-defined response function whose magnitude can be directly obtained from both measurements and computations. Once the appropriate description is used, understanding the interplay between electronic and ionic contributions becomes critical, contrary to what is widely assumed. This highlights the importance of electronic degrees of freedom in interpreting the dielectric response of polar fluids under nanoconfinement conditions, as revealed by molecular dynamics simulations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_01347
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Redefining the dielectric response of nanoconfined liquids: insights from water
Zubeltzu, Jon
Bresme, Fernando
Dawber, Matthew
Fernandez-Serra, Marivi
Artacho, Emilio
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Recent experiments show that the relative dielectric constant $ε$ of water confined to a film of nanometric thickness reaches a strikingly low value of 2.1, barely above the bulk's 1.8 value for the purely electronic response. We argue that $ε$ is not a well-defined measure for dielectric properties at sub-nanometer scales due to the ambiguous definition of confinement width. Instead we propose the 2D polarizability $α_{\perp}$ as the appropriate, well-defined response function whose magnitude can be directly obtained from both measurements and computations. Once the appropriate description is used, understanding the interplay between electronic and ionic contributions becomes critical, contrary to what is widely assumed. This highlights the importance of electronic degrees of freedom in interpreting the dielectric response of polar fluids under nanoconfinement conditions, as revealed by molecular dynamics simulations.
title Redefining the dielectric response of nanoconfined liquids: insights from water
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.01347