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Charging Dynamics of Electric Double-Layer Nanocapacitors in Mean Field

Ivan Palaia1,*, Adelchi J. Asta2, Megh Dutta3, Patrick B. Warren4, Benjamin Rotenberg5, and Emmanuel Trizac6

  • *Contact author: ivan.palaia@kcl.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148002 – Published 29 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/72b9-c8cq

Abstract

An electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) stores energy by modulating the spatial distribution of ions in the electrolytic solution that it contains. We determine the mean-field timescales for planar EDLC relaxation to equilibrium after a potential difference is applied. We tackle first the fully symmetric case, where positive and negative ionic species have the same valence and diffusivity, and then the general, more complex, asymmetric case. Depending on the applied voltage and salt concentration, different regimes appear, revealing a remarkably rich phenomenology relevant for nanocapacitors.

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Poisson-Nernst-Planck charging dynamics of an electric double-layer capacitor: Symmetric and asymmetric binary electrolytes

Ivan Palaia, Adelchi J. Asta, Megh Dutta, Patrick B. Warren, Benjamin Rotenberg, and Emmanuel Trizac
Phys. Rev. E 112, 035417 (2025)

Article Text

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148002– Published 29 September, 2025
  • Received 1 June 2025
  • Accepted 31 July 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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