Conformation of a Polyelectrolyte Complexed to a Like-Charged Colloid
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-07 v1 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
We report results from a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation on the conformations of a long flexible polyelectrolyte complexed to a charged sphere, \textit{both negatively charged}, in the presence of neutralizing counterions in the strong Coulomb coupling regime. The structure of this complex is very sensitive to the charge density of the polyelectrolyte. For a fully charged polyelectrolyte the polymer forms a dense two-dimensional "disk", whereas for a partially charged polyelectrolyte the monomers are spread over the colloidal surface. A mechanism involving the \textit{overcharging} of the polyelectrolyte by counterions is proposed to explain the observed conformations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0111341,
title = {Conformation of a Polyelectrolyte Complexed to a Like-Charged Colloid},
author = {Rene Messina and Christian Holm and Kurt Kremer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0111341},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures (6 EPS files)