1999/10/22 by Márcia C. Barbosa, Marcia C. Barbosa, Markus Deserno +1 · 4 citations
Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Geophysical and Geoelectrical Methods #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/epl/i2000-00407-y
published as Europhys. Lett. 52 (2000) 80 · 5 pages, 2 figures, revtex style
arxiv created 1999/10/22 · openalex publication_date 2000/10/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We propose a new approach for incorporating counterion correlations into Poisson-Boltzmann–like theories, which is based on a local density functional for the system of counterions. Our derivation is inspired by the Debye-Hückel approach to the one-component plasma (OCP). An artificial instability due to the OCP's homogeneous background charge—which is absent in the original counterion system—is overcome by excluding the background from the vicinity of a central ion. The resulting free energy density is convex and thus applicable within a local density approximation. For the simple example of a strongly charged stiff rod surrounded by its counterions we demonstrate that the Poisson-Boltzmann free energy functional augmented by our new correction accounts for the correlations present in this system when compared to molecular dynamics simulations.