Criticality in confined ionic fluids - art. no. 066104

A theory of a confined two-dimensional electrolyte is presented. The positi ve and negative ions, interacting by a l/r potential, are constrained to mo ve on an interface separating two solvents with dielectric constants epsilo n (1) and epsilon (2). It is shown that the Debye-Huckel type of theory pre dicts that this two-dimensional Coulomb fluid should undergo a phase separa tion into a coexisting liquid (high-density) and gas (low-density) phases. We argue, however, that the formation of polymerlike chains of alternating positive and negative ions can prevent this phase transition from taking pl ace.