Related papers: Aggregation Dynamics of Rigid Polyelectrolytes
The crystallization of proteins or colloids is often hindered by the appearance of aggregates of low fractal dimension called gels. Here we study the effect of electrostatics upon crystal and gel formation using an analytic model of hard…
The article presents a comprehensive study of counterion dynamics around a generic linear polyelectrolyte (PE) chain with the help of coarse-grained computer simulations. The ion-chain coupling is discussed in the form of binding time,…
The interaction of amphiphilic polymers with small colloids, capable to reversibly stick onto the chains, is studied. Adhesive small colloids in solution are able to dynamically bind two polymer segments. This association leads to…
Polyelectrolytes in poor solvents show a necklace structure where collapsed polymer pearls are linked to stretched strings. In the present paper the elasticity of such chains is studied in detail. Different deformation regimes are…
In the present study, we have investigated, using Monte Carlo simulations (MC), the adsorption of polyelectrolytes on the charged nanopatterned surfaces. Different surface patterns were considered and we noticed that the amount of…
Macroscopic properties of suspensions, such as those composed of globular particles (e.g., colloidal or macromolecular), can be tuned by controlling the equilibrium aggregation of the particles. We examine how aggregation -- and, hence,…
The change of the structure of concentrated colloidal suspensions upon addition of non-adsorbing polymer is studied within a two-component, Ornstein-Zernicke based liquid state approach. The polymers' conformational degrees of freedom are…
We study the salt-dependent conformations of dilute flexible polyelectrolytes in solution via computer simulations. Low concentrations of multivalent salt induce the known conformational collapse of individual polyelectrolyte chains, but as…
There are two modes by which clusters of aggregating particles can coalesce: The clusters can merge either (i) by the Ostwald ripening process in which particles diffuse from one cluster to the other whilst the cluster centres remain…
Dust emission mechanisms as one aspect of wind-driven particle motion on planetary surfaces are still poorly understood. The microphysics is important though as it determines dust sizes and morphologies which set sedimentation speeds and…
Collisional growth of tiny particles is a fundamental process governing the growth of cloud droplets and the aggregation of ash particles in volcanic plumes, with direct implications for precipitation formation, cloud lifetime, and ash…
We study theoretically using scaling arguments the behavior of polyelectrolyte gels in poor solvents. Following the classical picture of Katchalsky, our approach is based on single chain elasticity but it accounts for the recently proposed…
We numerically study a simple fluid composed of particles having a hard-core repulsion, complemented by two short-ranged attractive (sticky) spots at the particle poles, which provides a simple model for equilibrium polymerization of linear…
We study aggregation driven by a localized source of monomers. The densities become stationary and have algebraic tails far away from the source. We show that in a model with mass-independent reaction rates and diffusion coefficients, the…
A discrete model for the sintering of polydisperse, inhomogeneous arrays of cylinders is presented with empirical contact force-laws, taking into account plastic deformations, cohesion, temperature dependence (melting), and long-time…
The electrostatic screening length predicted by Debye-H\"uckel theory decreases with increasing ionic strength, but recent experiments have found that the screening length can instead increase in concentrated electrolytes. This phenomenon,…
This paper analyzes the compaction behavior of assemblies composed of soft (elastic) spherical particles beyond the jammed state, using three-dimensional non-smooth contact dynamic simulations. The assemblies of particles are characterized…
Cyclic polymers display unique physical behaviors in comparison to their linear counterparts. Theoretical, computational and experimental studies have revealed that some of their distinctive properties are also observed in charged variants…
This paper discusses the elastic behavior of a single polyelectrolyte chain. A simple scaling analysis as in self avoiding walk chains are not possible, because three interplaying relevant length scales are involved, i.e., the Debye…
This paper examines the response of electrolyte-saturated polymer gels, embedded with charged spherical inclusions, to a weak gradient of electrolyte concentration. These composites present a model system to study microscale electrokinetic…