Recent advancements in electrostatics of soft-matter: ion internal structure and correlations

Dr. Derek Frydel

University of Chicago

About the Speaker

Dr. Derek Frydel hold a Ph.D in chemistry from the University of Chicago. Afterwards, Dr. Derek Frydel held a number of postdocs: Max-Planck-Institute, Tel Aviv University, Institute of Physics at UFRGS in Brazil, and ESPCI. Currently Dr. Derek Frydel is an assistant professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University in chemistry. His general research area is soft-matter with special focus on electrostatics.

Talk Introduction

The standard tool of electrostatics in soft-matter is the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PB), and for long time its linearized version, the Debye-Huckel equation, was a useful tool for preliminary understanding of electrostatics phenomena. The full PB equation is a mean-field description of point-ions in a solvent represented as a background dielectric constant. In recent years there has been an effort to extend the mean-field description to ions with internal structure to account for ion specificity and for ions that are large and have shape and extension in space, as well as to attain a more realistic description of water solvent. This research led to a series of modified-PB equations. Another direction of great interest is to develop a consistent theoretical description beyond the mean-field that incorporates correlations. This talk will discuss both aspects of the extension of the PB equation: internal structure and correlations. 

时间: 2015年7月17日下午2:00-3:00 

地点: 图书馆北馆二楼会议室 

All are welcome！