Related papers: Microphase Segregation in Polyelectrolyte Brushes
Polyelectrolyte (PE) brushes are widely used in biomaterials and nanotechnology to regulate surface properties and interactions. Here, we apply the electrostatic correlation augmented self-consistent field theory to investigate the…
Recent experiments have shown that trivalent ion, spermidine$^{3+}$, can provoke lateral microphase segregation in DNA brushes. Using molecular simulations and simple theoretical arguments, we explore the effects of trivalent counterions on…
Modeling ion correlations in inhomogeneous polymers and soft matters with spatially varying ionic strength or dielectric permittivity remains a great challenge. Here, we develop a new theory which systematically incorporates electrostatic…
We formulate a self-consistent field theory for polyelectrolyte brushes in the presence of counterions. We numerically solve the self-consistent field equations and study the monomer density profile, the distribution of counterions, and the…
Brushes formed by arm-tethered starlike polyelectrolytes may exhibit internal segregation into weakly and strongly extended populations (stratified two-layer structure) when strong ionic intermolecular repulsions induce stretching of the…
In this paper, we study the electrostatics of pH-responsive polyelectrolyte-grafted spherical particles by using a strong stretching theory that takes into account the excluded volume interaction and the density of chargeable sites on the…
The adsorption of highly \textit{oppositely} charged flexible polyelectrolytes (PEs) on a charged planar substrate is investigated by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We study in detail the equilibrium structure of the first few PE…
We study the structure of complexes formed between ionic surfactants (SF) and a single oppositely charged polyelectrolyte (PE) chain. For our computer simulation we use the ``primitive'' electrolyte model: while the polyelectrolyte is…
We have modeled the layer-by-layer assembly process of flexible polyelectrolytes on flat surfaces. The multilayer has a three-zone structure. An exponential growth is found for the first several layers, followed by a linear growth for…
We study mixtures of charged surfactants, which alone in solution form uni- and multilamellar vesicles, and oppositely charged polyelectrolytes (PEs). The phase behavior is investigated at fixed surfactant concentration as a function of the…
In this paper, we study electrostatic and structural properties between pH-responsive polyelectrolyte brushes by using a strong stretching theory accounting for excluded volume interactions, the density of polyelectrolyte chargeable sites…
Neutral or charged polymers that are densely end-grafted to surfaces form brush-like structures and are highly stretched under good-solvent conditions. We discuss and compare relevant results from scaling models, self-consistent-field…
A model of rod-like polyelectrolyte brushes in the presence of monovalent and multivalent counterions but with no added-salt is studied using Monte Carlo simulation. The average height of the brush, the histogram of rod conformations, and…
We utilize the self-consistent field theory to explore the mechanical and electrical properties of charged surfaces immersed in polyelectrolyte solutions that could be potentially useful for electrochemical applications. Our research…
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…
Elastic MicroPhase Separation (EMPS) provides a simple route to create soft materials with homogeneous microstructures by leveraging the supersaturation of crosslinked polymer networks with liquids. At low supersaturation, network…
The adsorption of highly \textit{oppositely} charged flexible polyelectrolytes onto a charged spherical surface is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations in a fashion which resembles the layer-by-layer deposition technique…
In electrochemical systems, the structure of electrical double layers (EDLs) near electrode surfaces is crucial for energy conversion and storage functions. While the electrodes in real-world systems are usually heterogeneous, to date the…
The structural phase behavior of polymer brushes, single-component linear homopolymers grafted onto a planar substrate, is studied using the molecular Monte Carlo method in 3 dimensions. When simulation parameters of the system are set in…
We propose a framework to study the spatio-temporal evolution of liquid-liquid phase separation of weak polyelectrolytes in ionic solutions. Unlike strong polyelectrolytes, which carry a fixed charge, the charge state of weak…