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Electrostatic interactions at the nanoscale : development of continuous field theory
How do charged objects solvated in nanoconfined aqueous solutions interact ? This question is of great interest as electrostatic interactions at the nanoscale are ubiquitous both in biology and in nanotechnology. However, at this scale, the dielectric permittivity of water is anomalously low and inhomogeneous and results from an interplay between its interaction with the surface and its intrinsic bulk correlations.
To derive the properties of confined electrolytes, we develop a continuous description treating water and ions at the same footing, including the molecular structure of the fluid and liquid/surface interactions. We support our theoretical analysis with MD simulations and recent experimental results.