Solvent Effects on Structure and Screening in Confined Electrolytes

Using classical density functional theory, we investigate the influence of solvent on the structure and ionic screening of electrolytes under slit confinement and in contact with a reservoir. We consider a symmetric electrolyte with implicit and explicit solvent models and find that spatially resolving solvent molecules is essential for the ion structure at confining walls, excess ion adsorption, and the pressure exerted on the walls. Despite this, we observe only moderate differences in the period of oscillations of the pressure with the slit width and virtually coinciding decay lengths as functions of the scaling variable sigma ion=lambda D, where sigma ion is the ion diameter and lambda D the Debye length. Moreover, in the electrostatic-dominated regime, this scaling behavior is practically independent of the relative permittivity and its dependence on the ion concentration. In contrast, the crossover to the hard-core-dominated regime depends sensitively on all three factors.

Automated summary

In this study, the influence of solvent on the structure and ionic screening of electrolytes under slit confinement and in contact with a reservoir was investigated using classical density functional theory. It was found that spatially resolving solvent molecules is essential for understanding the ion structure, excess ion adsorption, and pressure exerted on the walls. While there were only moderate differences observed in the pressure oscillations and decay lengths based on the ion diameter and Debye length, the crossover to the hard-core-dominated regime depended sensitively on the relative permittivity, ion concentration, and other factors.