Journal of Physical Chemistry, Vol.98, No.26, 6577-6585, 1994
A New Approach to Development of Ionic Isotherms of Specific Adsorption in the Electrical Double-Layer
A new approach, which combines classical thermodynamics with basic electrostatic arguments, is proposed for the development of new ionic isotherms of specific adsorption on ideally polarized electrode surfaces. The main features of this approach are the following. The inner layer is considered to consist of two zones, along which the electric field is homogeneous. Then the Gauss theorem of electrostatics is used to Correlate the potential drop across the inner layer with the electrode charge density. This correlation allows the derivation of the electrochemical potentials of the constituents of the inner layer based exclusively on the properties of certain thermodynamic functions of this layer. The adsorption isotherms, which arise from the electrochemical potentials, can take into account changes in the dielectric constant, the inner layer thickness, and the orientation of the solvent dipoles during the adsorption process. Comparison with experiment shows that even the simplest isotherm, which takes into account only variations of the dielectric constant, can give an almost quantitative description of experimental isotherms.
Keywords:DIFFERENTIAL CAPACITY CURVES;METAL-ELECTROLYTE INTERFACE;ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS;INNER LAYER;SOLVENT STRUCTURE;MOLECULAR-MODELS;INTERPHASES;2-BUTANOL