Ionic activity in concentrated electrolytes: Solvent structure effect revisited

Abstract

We revisit the role of the local solvent structure on the activity coefficients of electrolytes within a nonlocal dielectric function approach. We treat the concentrated electrolyte as a dielectric medium and suggest an interpolation formula for its nonlocal dielectric response. The water dielectric response is approximated based on MD simulations and experimental data, that gives strong over-screening and oscillations in the potential, which are absent in the standard “primitive model” predictions. We obtain mathematically tractable closed-form expressions for the activity coefficients, in reasonable agreement with experimental data.