Phase behaviour and structure of a superionic liquid in nonpolarized nanoconfinement

Abstract

The ion-ion interactions become exponentially screened for ions confined in ultranarrow metallic pores. To study the phase behaviour of an assembly of such ions, called a superionic liquid, we develop a statistical theory formulated on bipartite lattices, which allows an analytical solution within the Bethe-lattice approach. Our solution predicts the existence of ordered and disordered phases in which ions form a crystal-like structure and a homogeneous mixture, respectively. The transition between these two phases can potentially be first or second order, depending on the ion diameter, degree of confinement and pore ionophobicity. We supplement our analytical results by three-dimensional off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations of an ionic liquid in slit nanopores. The simulations predict formation of ionic clusters and ordered snake-like patterns, leading to characteristic close-standing peaks in the cation-cation and anion-anion radial distribution functions.

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• Capacitive energy storage in single-file pores: Exactly-solvable models and simulations
• Superionic liquids in conducting nanoslits: A variety of phase transitions and ensuing charging behavior
• Re-entrant phase transitions and dynamics of a nanoconfined ionic liquid
• Multicritical Bifurcation and First-order Phase Transitions in a Three-dimensional Blume-Capel Antiferromagnet
• Binary lattice-gases of particles with soft exclusion: Exact phase diagrams for tree-like lattices