Force oscillations and dielectric overscreening of interfacial water.
The anomalous properties of interfacial water, such as the layering of electrolyte solutions confined in nanoscopic films, the rise of hydration repulsion at high ionic strength, and the existence of an interfacial potential barrier, were consistently described by the theory of nonlocal electrostatics using the dielectric function of isotropic water as obtained by molecular dynamics. The layering arises owing to the negative sign of the dielectric function at certain wave vectors ("overscreening") similar to the appearance of charge density waves in high-temperature superconductors.
Cherepanov
Dmitry A
DA
Division of Biophysics, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany.