Development of mean-field electrical double layer theory

In order to understand the electric interfacial behavior, mean field based electric double layer (EDL) theory has been continuously developed over the past 150 years. In this article, we briefly review the development of the EDL model, from the dimensionless Gouy-Chapman model to the symmetric Bikerman-Freise model, and finally toward size-asymmetric mean field theory models. We provide the general derivations within the framework of Helmholtz free energy of the lattice-gas model, and it can be seen that the above-mentioned models are consistent in the sense that the interconversion among them can be achieved by reducing the basic assumptions.