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research article

Effect of a temperature gradient on the screening properties of ionic fluids

Grisafi, Andrea  
•
Grasselli, Federico  
April 27, 2023
Physical Review Materials

The electrostatic screening properties of ionic fluids are of paramount importance in countless physical processes. Yet the screening behavior of ionic conductors out of thermal equilibrium has to date mainly been studied in the context of thermoelectric phenomena by virtue of direct extensions of Debye-Huckel theories. We investigate how the static response of a symmetric ionic fluid is influenced by the presence of a thermal gradient by introducing a theory of electrostatic screening under a stationary temperature profile. By borrowing mathematical methods commonly used in the semiclassical approximation of quantum particles, we find analytical solutions to the asymptotic decay of the charge density which can be used to describe the nonequilibrium response of the system to external charge perturbations and for arbitrary ionic concentrations. Notably, a transition between monotonic and oscillatory screening regimes is observed as an effect of the temperature variation which generalizes known results of thermal equilibrium to out of equilibrium conditions. A final quantitative example on the screening of charged surfaces in aqueous electrolytes shows that the deviation from thermal equilibrium predicted by our solutions is generally larger than thermoelectric effects and should therefore be taken into account for a comprehensive description of the electrical double layer. Our findings pave the way to the rigorous treatment of nonequilibrium steady states in ionic systems with potential applications to the study of energy materials, nanostructured systems, and waste-heat-recovery technologies.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.7.045803
Web of Science ID

WOS:000985626600002

Author(s)
Grisafi, Andrea  
Grasselli, Federico  
Date Issued

2023-04-27

Publisher

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Published in
Physical Review Materials
Volume

7

Issue

4

Article Number

045803

Subjects

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

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Materials Science

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equation

•

model

•

layer

•

decay

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
COSMO  
Available on Infoscience
June 5, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/198037
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