Stern Layer Structure and Energetics at Mica–Water Interfaces

By I. Bourg, Sang Soo Lee, P. Fenter, Christophe Tournassat. 2017

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The screening of surface charge by dissolved ions at solid–liquid interfaces—in the region of interfacial fluid known as the electrical double layer (EDL)—plays a recurrent role in surface science, from ion adsorption to colloidal mechanics to the transport properties of nanoporous media. A persistent unknown in theories of EDL-related phenomena is the structure of the Stern layer, the near-surface portion of the EDL where water molecules and adsorbed ions form specific short-range interactions with surface atoms. Here, we describe a set of synchrotron X-ray reflectivity (XRR) experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations carried out under identical conditions for a range of 0.1 M alkali chloride (Li-, Na-, K-, Rb-, or CsCl) solutions on the basal surface of muscovite mica, a mineral isostructural to phyllosilicate clay minerals and one of the most widely studied reference surfaces in interfacial science. Our XRR and MD simulation results provide a remarkably consistent view of the structure and ene...

Subfields: Geophysics, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5ca8c878049b43daca656e23dbff51525e4badc2