title: Ion distributions near a liquid-liquid interface.
abstract: Mean field theories of ion distributions, such as the Gouy-Chapman theory that describes the distribution near a charged planar surface, ignore the molecular-scale structure in the liquid solution. The predictions of the Gouy-Chapman theory vary substantially from our x-ray reflectivity measurements of the interface between two electrolyte solutions. Molecular dynamics simulations, which include the liquid structure, were used to calculate the potential of mean force on a single ion. We used this potential of mean force in a generalized Poisson-Boltzmann equation to predict the full ion distributions. These distributions agree with our measurements without any adjustable parameters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Sarka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malkova
authors.forename: Jaesung
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: David G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Binhua
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Mati
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meron
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Benjamin
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanysek
authors.forename: Mark L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Schlossman