Quantum capacitance modifies interionic interactions in semiconducting nanopores

Nanopores made with low-dimensional semiconducting materials, such as carbon nanotubes and graphene slit pores, are used in supercapacitors. For modelling purposes, it is often assumed that such pores screen ion-ion interactions like metallic pores, i.e. that screening leads to an exponential decay of the interaction potential with ion separation. By introducing a quantum capacitance that accounts for the density of states in the material, we show that ion-ion interactions in carbon nanotubes and graphene slit pores actually decay algebraically with ion separation. This result suggests a new avenue of capacitance optimization based on tuning the electronic structure of a pore: a marked enhancement in capacitance might be achieved by developing nanopores made with metallic materials or bulk semimetallic materials. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2016