Electrostatic interactions mediated by polarizable counterions: weak and strong coupling limits

Vincent Démery (1) , David S. Dean (2) , Rudolf Podgornik (3, 4)

1 DALEMBERT - Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
2 LOMA - Laboratoire Ondes et Matière d'Aquitaine
3 Department of Theoretical Physics
4 Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics

We investigate the statistical mechanics of an inhomogeneous Coulomb fluid composed of charged particles with static polarizability. We derive the weak- and the strong-coupling approximations and evaluate the partition function in a planar dielectric slab geometry with charged boundaries. We investigate the density profiles and the disjoining pressure for both approximations. Comparison to the case of non-polarizable counterions shows that polarizability brings important differences in the counterion density distribution as well as the counterion mediated electrostatic interactions between charged dielectric interfaces.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Mécanique statistique [cond-mat.stat-mech]

Vincent Démery, David S. Dean, Rudolf Podgornik. Electrostatic interactions mediated by polarizable counterions: weak and strong coupling limits. Journal of Chemical Physics, 2012, 137 (17), pp.174903 (1-15). ⟨10.1063/1.4763986⟩. ⟨hal-00772477⟩