# Coulombic Surface-Ion Interactions Induce Nonlinear and Chemistry-Specific Charging Kinetics Source: [Coulombic Surface-Ion Interactions Induce Nonlinear and Chemistry-Specific Charging Kinetics]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-25T04:21:24.010Z Authors: Willem Boon, Marjolein Dijkstra, Ren\\'e van Roij Published: 2022-10-27T13:44:13.000Z ## Abstract While important for many industrial applications, chemical reactions responsible for charging of solids in water are often poorly understood. We theoretically investigate the charging kinetics of solid-liquid interfaces, and find that the time-dependent equilibration of surface charge contains key information not only on the reaction mechanism, but also on the valency of the reacting ions. We construct a non-linear differential equation describing surface charging by combining chemical Langmuir kinetics and electrostatic Poisson-Boltzmann theory. Our results reveal a clear distinction between late-time (near-equilibrium) and short-time (far-from-equilibrium) relaxation rates, the ratio of which contains information on the charge valency and ad- or desorption mechanism of the charging process. Similarly, we find that single-ion reactions can be distinguished from two-ion reactions as the latter show an inflection point during equilibration. Interestingly, such inflection points are characteristic of autocatalytic reactions, and we conclude that the Coulombic ion-surface interaction is an autocatalytic feedback mechanism. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()