Related papers: Electrostatic Depletion Force in Complex Coacervat…
The behavior of polyelectrolytes between charged surfaces immersed in semi-dilute solutions is investigated theoretically. A continuum mean field approach is used for calculating numerically concentration profiles between two electrodes…
The phase separation of oppositely-charged polyelectrolytes in solution is of current interest . In this work we study the driving force for polyelectrolyte complexation using molecular dynamics simulations. We calculate the potential of…
Similarly-charged polymers in solution, known as polyelectrolytes, are known to form aggregated structures in the presence of oppositely charged counterions. Understanding the dependence of the equilibrium phases and the dynamics of the…
We consider the interactions between two uncharged planar macroscopic surfaces immersed in an electrolyte solution which are induced by interfacial selectivity. These forces are taken into account by introducing a depletion free-energy…
When two macromolecules come very near in a fluid, the surrounding molecules, having finite volume, are less likely to get in between. This leads to a pressure difference manifesting as an entropic attraction, called depletion force. Here…
Biomolecular condensates such as membraneless organelles, underpinned by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), are important for physiological function, with electrostatics -- among other interaction types -- being a prominent force 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…
Electrostatic interactions in polymeric systems are responsible for a wide range of liquid-liquid phase transitions that are of importance for biology and materials science. Such transitions are referred to as complex coacervation, and…
Understanding the behavior of charged complex fluids is crucial for a plethora of important industrial, technological, and medical applications. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, here we investigate the properties of a…
Depletion interactions arise from entropic forces, and their ability to induce aggregation and even ordering of colloidal particles through self-assembly is well established, especially for spherical colloids. We vary the size and…
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) abound in cellular regulation. Their interactions are often transitory and highly sensitive to salt concentration and posttranslational modifications. However, little is known about the effect of…
The structural diversity of the solute molecules involved in biomolecular processes necessitates the characterization of the forces between charged macromolecules beyond the point-ion description. From the field theoretic partition function…
Electrostatics plays a key role in biomolecular assembly. Oppositely charged biomolecules, for instance, can co-assembled into functional units, such as DNA and histone proteins into nucleosomes and actin-binding protein complexes into…
Stretching dynamics of polymers in microfluidics is of particular interest for polymer scientists. As a charged polymer, a polyelectrolyte can be deformed from its coiled equilibrium configuration to an extended chain by applying uniform or…
Similarly-charged polyelectrolytes are known to attract each other and aggregate into bundles when the charge density of the polymers exceeds a critical value that depends on the valency of the counterions. The dynamics of aggregation of…
Solutes added to solutions often dramatically impact molecular processes ranging from the suspension or precipitation of colloids to biomolecular associations and protein folding. Here we revisit the origins of the effective attractive…
We study the elasto-plastic behavior of dense attractive emulsions under mechanical perturbation. The attraction is introduced through non-specific depletion interactions between the droplets and is controlled by changing the concentration…
The effective quasistatic conductivity of composite polymeric electrolytes is studied in terms of a hard-core--penetrable-layer model. Used to incorporate the interface phenomena (such as amorphization of the polymer matrix around filler…
We investigate the collapse kinetics of charged polymers (polyelectrolytes) induced by counterion condensation using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations. Under good solvent conditions, polyelectrolytes above the critical charge…
Interplay of Coulomb interaction energy, free ion entropy, and conformational elasticity is a fascinating aspect in polyelectrolytes (PEs). We develop a theory for complexation of two oppositely charged PEs, a process known to be the…