Dielectric profile at the Pt(111)/water interface

Abstract

The dielectric constant, although a simplified concept when considering atomic scales, enters many mean-field, electrochemical interface models and constant potential models as an important parameter. Here, we use ab initio and machine-learned molecular dynamics to scrutinize the behavior of the electronic contribution to ɛr(z) as a function of distance z from a Pt(111) surface. We show that the resulting dielectric profile can largely be explained as a sum of the metallic response and the density-scaled water response at the interface. A slight enhancement of the dielectric response close to the surface can be explained by elongated, strongly polarizable orbitals induced by metal/water bonding. In spite of this enhancement, our results suggest the presence of a region with a very low dielectric constant close to the surface (where the orientational dielectric response does not kick in yet), even for water in contact with hydrophilic metallic interfaces. This region will restrict the double layer capacitance to relatively low values even at potentials where dielectric saturation does not play a role yet. This finding has implications on possible interpretations of double layer capacitances, the dependence of surface electric fields on the ion size, and on electrochemical kinetics.