Room-temperature ionic liquids: excluded volume and ion polarizability effects in the electrical double-layer structure and capacitance

Abstract

We study structures of room-temperature ionic liquids at electrified interfaces and the corresponding electrical double-layer capacities using a self-consistent mean-field theory. Ionic liquids are modeled as segmented dendrimers and the effective dielectric constant is calculated from the local distribution of ions to accommodate the excluded volume and the local dielectric screening effects. The resulting camel-shaped capacitance curve is further analyzed in terms of the thickness of alternating layers and the polarization of ions at electrified interfaces. © 2009 The American Physical Society.