Finite electric displacement simulations of polar ionic solid-electrolyte interfaces: Application to NaCl(111)/aqueous NaCl solution

Tasker type III polar terminations of ionic crystals carry a net surface charge as well as a dipole moment and are fundamentally unstable. In contact with electrolytes, such polar surfaces can be stabilized by adsorption of counterions from the solution to form electric double layers. In a previous work [T. Sayer et al., J. Chem. Phys 147, 104702 (2017)], we reported on a classical force field based molecular dynamics study of a prototype model system, namely, a NaCl(111) slab interfaced with an aqueous NaCl solution on both sides. A serious hurdle in the simulation is that the finite width of the slab admits an electric field in the solid perturbing the theoretical charge balance at the interface of semi-infinite systems [half the surface charge density for NaCl(111)]. It was demonstrated that the application of a finite macroscopic field E canceling the internal electric field can recover the correct charge compensation at the interface. In the present work, we expand this method by applying a conjugate...