Field theoretic approach of electrified interfaces

✍ Scribed by J. Stafiej; M. Dymitrowska; J.P. Badiali

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 743 KB
• Volume: 41
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-4686
• DOI: 10.1016/0013-4686(96)00042-4

✦ Synopsis

We describe the primitive model of an electrochemical interfac: by using a free energy functional of the Landau type. The relevant variables are assumed to be the charge and total ion density and the Coulomb interaction is explicitly taken into account. Explicit results are obtained in a mean field approach which is derived by writing the equations for the extrema of the free energy. The model reduces to Gouy-Chapman theory for some values of the parameters of the model, but for other parameter sets, in which the positive and negative ions are not behaving symmetrically, we find a regime different from that predicted by Gouy-Chapman theory. In particular, the charge and total ion density may exhibit an oscillatory behaviour as a function of distance from the electrode. We briefly discuss other possible applications of this general approach to electrochemical problems.