Electrical double layers. I. Monte Carlo study of a uniformly charged surface

Abstract

This paper reports grand canonical Monte Carlo computations on the diffuse double layer in an ionic system next to a uniformly charged plane surface. The boundary conditions and the grand canonical techniques are discussed. Calculations were carried out for the 1:1 restricted primitive model at several concentrations and over a range of surface charge densities. The results are compared with the modified Gouy–Chapman theory, and some remarks are also possible with respect to the modified Poisson–Boltzmann and the hypernetted chain approaches. At high concentrations and surface charge densities the counterions are packed closely at the surface and begin to show a layered structure. This results in a large electrostatic potential drop, but only very slight charge oscillations are observed in the solution. None of the theories seems able to describe this behavior.