ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Electrical double layers (EDLs) are found ubiquitously in biomedical and engineering systems. While the critical dimension of EDLs rarely exceeds hundreds of nanometers, they often dictate the macroscopic behavior of systems in which they exist. In this chapter, we summarize the key features of EDLs and researches devoted to the thermodynamic aspects of EDLs. In particular, we will focus on theoretical and computational studies on the structure of EDLs. In theoretical studies, we focus on the PoissonBoltzmann (PB) model and how physics such ion-ion correlations and dielectric saturation are incorporated in several generations of modied PB models and their effects on EDL structure. In simulation studies, we focus on molecular dynamics modeling of EDLs in aqueous systems and highlight how the discreteness and nite size of ion, solvent, and surface atoms affect EDL structures near open surfaces and in conned spaces. New directions for theoretical and computational studies of EDLs are discussed.
