Regensburg 2022 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 18: Complex Fluids and Colloids, Micelles and Vesicles (joint session CPP/DY)

CPP 18.5: Talk

Tuesday, September 6, 2022, 12:45–13:00, H38

Effective Thomas-Fermi screening approach and wetting transition at charge/metal interfaces — •Alexander Schlaich^1,2, Dongliang Jin^1,3, Lyderic Bocquet⁴, and Benoit Coasne¹ — ¹Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, LIPhy, Grenoble, France — ²Stuttgart Center for Simulation Science, Universität Stuttgart, Germany — ³Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Technische Universitat Wien, Austria — ⁴Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France

At the nanometer scale the commonly employed image charge approach to obtain the electrostatic interactions close to a metallic interface breaks down due to the finite screening in any real metal. We develop an effective approach that allows dealing with any real metal using the Thomas-Fermi formalism. [1]

We find a microscopic picture based on the Gibbs-Thomson equation for capillary freezing of an ionic liquid. An unprecedented wetting transition is found upon switching the confining medium from insulating to metallic. The wetting behavior at imperfect metals raises new challenging questions on the complex behavior of charged systems in the vicinity or confined within surfaces.

[1] A. Schlaich, D. Jin, L. Bocquet & B. Coasne, Nat. Mater. 1 (2021).