
2
approximated by the single-reaction kinetics presented in this
Letter for a wide range of experimental conditions.
We consider a macroscopic surface with a density Γof iden-
tical surface groups. A group can only be in either a neutral or
a charged state. The charging is assumed to take place either
by desorption (labeled by −) of a cation of charge ze, or by
adsorption (labeled by +) of a cation of charge ze, with z≥0
and ethe proton charge. The surface densities of charged and
neutral groups are denoted by σ±>0 and Γ−σ±>0 respec-
tively, and the surface charge density is given by ±zeσ±. Note
that the charging dynamics is invariant under the sign of the
reacting ions, and without loss of generality we can restrict at-
tention to reactive cations of (strictly positive) valency z. As-
suming the chargeable surface sites to be independent, we can
describe the reaction kinetics in terms of the time-dependent
surface density σ±(t)>0 which satisfies Langmuir kinetics
described by [49, 50]
∂tσ−=kd(Γ−σ−)−kaσ−ρ(σ−)(2a)
for desorptive charging reaction (1a), and
∂tσ+=ka(Γ−σ+)ρ(σ+)−kdσ+(2b)
for adsorptive charging reaction (1b). Here kdand kaare the
rate constants of the dissociation and association of the re-
active ion and ρ(σ±)is the volumetric concentration of re-
active ions at the surface, which is defined at the position
where the rate-limiting step for the reaction occurs [50, 51].
We consider this surface to be impermeable to non-reacting
ions and therefore do not account for any Stern layer other
than the charged surface groups [27]. The equilibrium sur-
face charge follows from ∂tσ±=0 and is given by σ±,eq =
Γ(1+ (kaρeq/kd)∓1)−1, which reduces to an explicit “Lang-
muir isotherm” in the case that the equilibrium concentration
of the reactive ions ρeq ≡ρ(σ±,eq)is a constant independent
of σ±,eq. In general, however, this Langmuir isotherm is a
self-consistency equation for σ±,eq that requires an additional
“closure” relation ρ(σ±)for an explicit equilibrium solution
σ±,eq. Without (Coulombic) interactions between surface and
ions, the local concentration ρ(σ±)of reactive species in the
vicinity of the surface would be equal to the bulk concentra-
tion ρbof the reactive ions far from the surface (which is in-
dependent of σ±and hence also independent from the reac-
tion mechanism), such that Eqs. (2a)-(2b) would be linear dif-
ferential equations whose solution can be written as s±(t) =
1+ (s±(0)−1)exp[−(kd+kaρb)t]with the dimensionless
charge s±=σ±/σ±,eq such that s±,eq =1; here s±(0)−1
is the integration constant and denotes the relative deviation
from equilibrium at the initial time t=0. Note that the con-
dition that 0 ≤σ±(t)≤Γimplies that 0 <s±(0)<Γ/σ±,eq,
where the lower bound corresponds to an initially neutral sur-
face whereas the upper bound can be as large as O(10 −100),
since typical equilibrium conditions have a charge occupancy
of only a few percent of the total number of chargeable groups
[52]. Thus from measurements of σ±(t)at various concentra-
tions of reactive (dissolved) species both kdand kacould in
this non-interacting case be determined.
However, as the charged surface attracts or repels reactive
ions, Eqs. (2a) and (2b) are complicated by a nontrivial rela-
++++++++++
+ϕeq=4
○ ϕeq=2
(a)
z=0
z=1
z=2
z=3
012345
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
(2z+1)kaρeqt
s-(t)-1
++++++++++
(b)
012345
1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
012345
1
10-1
10-2
+
+
+
+
+
++++++
+
+
+
+++++
(c)
012345
0
-0.5
-1
kaρeqt
s+(t)-1
FIG. 1. Time-dependent relative deviations s±(t)−1 from the equi-
librium charge density as follows from the kinetic Langmuir-Gouy-
Chapman equations (2a)-(3) in (a) and Eqs. (2b)-(3) in (b) and (c),
for equilibrium zeta potentials (kBT/e)|φeq|equal to 50 mV (cross)
and 100 mV (circle) for valencies z=0,1,2,3 (colors), in (a) s−(t)
for desorptive reactions when σ−,eq Γ, in (b) s+(t)for adsorptive
reactions when σ+,eq Γ, and in (c) s+(t)for adsorptive reactions
when σ+,eq 'Γ. Insets denote semi-logarithmic representations of
|s±(t)−1|. The case σ−,eq 'Γ(not shown) is trivial with single-
exponential decay for all z.
tion ρ(σ±), which causes a charge-dependent decay rate and
introduces deviations from purely single-exponential relax-
ation of σ±(t). In fact, an explicit function ρ(σ±)is needed
to investigate and solve the dynamics, which we will develop
here. We consider the planar and homogeneous chargeable
solid surface discussed above in contact with a bulk solvent
with permittivity εand temperature Twith a three-component
1 : 1 : zelectrolyte of bulk concentrations ρs:(ρs−zρb):ρb.
For convenience we assume trace amounts of reactive ions and
therefore set ρbρs, where ρsis the bulk salt concentra-
tion. We also assume the electrolyte volume to be macroscop-
ically large such that ρband ρsdo not change due to surface
charging. Furthermore, we assume the charging timescale τ±,
which remains to be derived, to be the slowest timescale of
the system. Given that the typical timescale for electric double
layer (EDL) equilibration is around 10−9−10−6s and that the
(geometry and flow dependent) transport timescale for ions
in stirred reactors can be as short as 10−4s [53], we find a
large window τ±10−4s for reactions to be well-described
by our (reaction-limited) theory [54]: for example phosphate
desorption shows characteristic reaction timescales of hours
[55] and adsorption of transition metals can occur on mil-
lisecond timescales [23, 24]. The slow-reaction assumption
allows us to describe the EDL within an equilibrium theory,
for which we take the Gouy-Chapman solution of Poisson-
Boltzmann (PB) theory for simplicity [20, 56]. Although PB
theory is based on a mean-field assumption for a system of
point ions, it is known that for all but the highest salt concen-
trations this theory is quite accurate for 1 : 1 and even 1 : 2
aqueous electrolytes [57], and we expect a similar accuracy
for 1 : 1 : zelectrolytes in the limit ρbρsof our inter-
est. Within these assumptions the concentration of reactive
ions at the surface is determined by a Boltzmann distribution
ρ(σ±) = ρbexp[−zφ(σ±)], where kBTφ(σ±)/eis the elec-
tric potential at the surface with a surface charge ±zeσ±, with
kBthe Boltzmann constant. For desorptive charging the sur-
face and ions have opposite charge and hence zφ(σ−)<0,
while for adsorptive charging ions and surface have the same