Electrostatic interactions in critical solvents

The subtle interplay between critical phenomena and electrostatics is investigated by considering the effective force acting on two parallel walls confining a near-critical binary liquid mixture with added salt. The ion-solvent coupling can turn a non-critical repulsive electrostatic force into an attractive one upon approaching the critical point. However, the effective force is eventually dominated by the critical Casimir effect, the universal properties of which are not altered by the presence of salt. This observation allows a consistent interpretation of recent experimental data.

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