Two-body polyelectrolyte mediated bridging interactions
Abstract
We investigate theoretically polyelectrolyte bridging interactions on the two-body level. The model system is composed of two macroions with two oppositely charged flexible chains. The electrostatic interactions are treated on the Debye - H\" uckel level. The formal level of the theory is provided by the Feynman-Kleinert variational method generalized to include also self-interactions between polyelectrolyte segments. The variational equations are shown to exhibit two solution branches corresponding to {\sl strong} and {\sl weak} coupling, whereas conformations of the chain can be described as {\sl weakly} or {\sl strongly paired}. We investigate the effective pair interaction between the macroions in the parameter space and comment on the relevance of the calculation for bridging interactions in experimental context.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0307241,
title = {Two-body polyelectrolyte mediated bridging interactions},
author = {Rudi Podgornik},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0307241},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
21 pages, 6 figures