Universal scaling of electrochemical information transfer at solid-liquid interfaces

Abstract

Electrochemical potentials at solid-liquid interfaces govern diverse chemical and energy conversion processes; however, the extent to which their electrochemical influence extends into the solid remains unclear. This study demonstrates that the maximally accessible electrochemical information is controlled by a single dimensionless factor $u$, defined as the ratio of the effective electrostatic separation between the liquid and probe locations to the electrostatic propagation length in the solid. The resulting universal inverse-square scaling is independent of the microscopic details of the probe. This attenuation law identifies electrostatic screening as a fundamental constraint on information transfer across solid-liquid interfaces, providing quantitative design principles for subsurface electrochemical sensing.

6 pages, 4 figures