Absence of anomalous underscreening in highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes confined between smooth silica surfaces

Saravana Kumar, Peter Cats, Mohammed B. Alotaibi, Subhash C. Ayirala, Ali A. Yousef, Rene van Roij, Igor Siretanu, Frieder Mugele

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Recent surface forces apparatus experiments that measured the forces between two mica surfaces and a series of subsequent theoretical studies suggest the occurrence of universal underscreening in highly concentrated electrolyte solutions. We performed a set of systematic Atomic Force Spectroscopy measurements for aqueous salt solutions in a concentration range from 1 mM to 5 M using chloride salts of various alkali metals as well as mixed concentrated salt solutions (involving both mono- and divalent cations and anions), that mimic concentrated brines typically encountered in geological formations. Experiments were carried out using flat substrates and submicrometer-sized colloidal probes made of smooth oxidized silicon immersed in salt solutions at pH values of 6 and 9 and temperatures of 25 °C and 45 °C. While strong repulsive forces were observed for the smallest tip-sample separations, none of the conditions explored displayed any indication of anomalous long range electrostatic forces as reported for mica surfaces. Instead, forces are universally dominated by attractive van der Waals interactions at tip-sample separations of ≈2 nm and beyond for salt concentrations of 1 M and higher. Complementary calculations based on classical density functional theory for the primitive model support these experimental observations and display a consistent decrease in screening length with increasing ion concentration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)819-827
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Colloid and Interface Science
Volume622
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
SK, IS and FM would like to thank University of Twente and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) for the funding under the contract no. 6600041100. PC and RR would like to thank the D-ITP consortium, a program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) that is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) and a part of the NWO programme ‘Datadriven science for smart and sustainable energy research’, with project number 16DDS014.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Keywords

  • AFM
  • DFT
  • Surface forces
  • Decay lengths
  • Colloidal interaction
  • Underscreening

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