  We study the role the proton-electron gas interaction has on the formation of
nuclear structures in neutron star crusts. Using a classical molecular dynamics
model we study isospin symmetric and asymmetric matter at subsaturation
densities and low temperatures varying the Coulomb interaction strength. The
effect of such variation is quantified on the fragment size multiplicity, the
inter-particle distance, the isospin content of the clusters, the nucleon
mobility and cluster persistence, and on the nuclear structure shapes. We find
that the proton-electron Coulomb interaction distributes matter more evenly,
disrupts the formation of larger objects, reduces the isospin content, modifies
the nucleon average displacement, but does not affect the inter-nucleon
distance in clusters . The nuclear structures are also found to change shapes
by different degrees depending on their isospin content, temperature and
density.
