Related papers: Unfolding Polyelectrolytes in Trivalent Salt Solut…
We analyze solutions of strongly charged chains bridged by linkers such as multivalent ions. The gelation induced by the strong short range electrostatic attractions is dramatically suppressed by the long range electrostatic correlations…
Monte Carlo simulations and variational calculations using a Gaussian ansatz are applied to a model consisting of a flexible linear polyelectrolyte chain as well as to an intrinsically stiff chain with up to 1000 charged monomers. Addition…
We have studied a bulk electrolyte, and polyelectrolyte solutions with surfactants or multivalent salt with the explicit presence of counterions and solvent molecules by means of the mesoscopic dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method in…
We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a highly charged flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) chain in a poor solvent for the case when the chain is in a collapsed state and the electrostatic interactions, characterized by the…
We investigate theoretically the phase diagram of an insoluble charged surfactant monolayer in contact with a semi-dilute polyelectrolyte solution (of opposite charge). The polyelectrolytes are assumed to have long-range and attractive…
The collapse kinetics of strongly charged polyelectrolytes in poor solvents is investigated by Langevin simulations and scaling arguments. The rate of collapse increases sharply as the valence of counterions, z, increases from one to four.…
Using Langevin dynamics simulations, we study elastic response of single semiflexible polyelectrolytes to an external force pulling on the chain ends, to mimic the stretching of DNA molecules by optical tweezers. The linear chains are…
We have used kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to study the kinetics of unfolding of cross-linked polymer chains under mechanical loading. As the ends of a chain are pulled apart, the force transmitted by each crosslink increases until it…
We consider the thermodynamics of a uniformly charged polyelectrolyte with harmonic bonds. For such a system there is at high temperatures an approximate scaling of global properties like the end-to-end distance and the interaction energy…
A weakly charged flexible polyelectrolyte chain in a neutral spherical cavity is analyzed using self-consistent field theory (SCFT) within an explicit solvent model. Assuming the radial symmetry for the system, it is found that the…
Conformational properties of a single flexible polyelectrolyte chain in a poor solvent are studied using constant temperature molecular dynamics simulation. The effects of counterions are explicitly taken in to account. Structural…
We study the response of a model micro-electrochemical cell to a large ac voltage of frequency comparable to the inverse cell relaxation time. To bring out the basic physics, we consider the simplest possible model of a symmetric binary…
The interaction between charged objects in an electrolyte solution is a fundamental question in soft matter physics. It is well-known that the electrostatic contribution to the interaction energy decays exponentially with object separation.…
The structure and stability of strongly charged complex fibers formed by complexation of a single long semi-flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) chain and many oppositely charged spherical macroions are investigated numerically at the ground-state…
We probe the electrostatic mechanism driving adsorption of polyelectrolytes onto like-charged membranes upon the addition of tri- and tetravalent counterions to a bathing monovalent salt solution. We develop a one-loop-dressed strong…
Salt transport in bulk electrolytes is limited by diffusion and convection, but in microstructures with charged surfaces (e.g. microfluidic devices, porous media, soils, or biological tissues) surface conduction and electro-osmotic flow…
Electroactive polymers are smart materials that can be used as actuators, sensors, or energy harvesters. We focus on a pseudo trilayer based on PEDOT, a semiconductor polymer: the central part consists of two interpenetrating polymers and…
In this paper, we formulate a field-theoretical model of dilute salt solutions of electrically neutral spherical colloid particles. Each colloid particle consists of a 'central' charge that is situated at the center and compensating…
We use a version of the density functional theory to study the solvation force between two plates modified with a tethered layer of chains. The chains are built of tangentially jointed charged spherical segments. The plates are immersed in…
There is a large body of literature investigating the static and dynamic properties of polyelectrolytes due both to their widespread application in industrial processes and their ubiquitous presence in biology. Because of their highly…