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Polypeptide-based diblock copolymers forming either well-defined self-assembled micelles or vesicles after direct dissolution in water or in dichloromethane, have been studied combining light and neutron scattering with electron microscopy…
The extension elasticity of rod-coil mutliblock copolymers is analyzed for two experimentally accessible situations. In the quenched case, when the architecture is fixed by the synthesis, the force law is distinguished by a sharp change in…
Quantum chemical calculations have been employed to investigate the solvation of lithium cations in ethylene carbonate/propylene carbonate and propylene carbonate/dimethyl carbonate mixed electrolytes. The impact of the presence of the…
We model polydomain liquid-crystal elastomers by extending the neo-classical soft and semi-soft free energies used successfully to describe monodomain samples. We show that there is a significant difference between polydomains cross-linked…
The dielectric permittivity of salt water decreases on dissolving more salt. For nearly a century, this phenomenon has been explained by invoking saturation in the dielectric response of the solvent water molecules. Herein, we employ an…
Liquid mixtures composed of colloidal particles and much smaller non-adsorbing linear homopolymers can undergo a gelation transition due to polymer-mediated depletion forces. We now show that the addition of linear polymers to suspensions…
The nature of electrostatic interactions involving polyanions modulate the properties of both synthetic and biological macromolecules. Although intensely studied for decades the interplay of many length scales has prevented a complete…
We theoretically study the reentrant condensation of a polyelectrolyte in the presence of an oppositely-charged surfactant,a phenomenon whose phase-transition mechanism remains under discussion. We focus on the adsorption and attraction…
We present two successive mean-field approximations for describing the mechanical properties and the swelling equilibrium of polyelectrolyte gels in contact with a salt solution. The first mean-field approximation reduces the many-chain…
The formation of complexes between like-charged polyelectrolytes challenges conventional electrostatic intuition and highlights the central role of ions in mediating macromolecular organization. Here, we investigate the salt-dependent…
When calcium salts are added to an aqueous solution of polysaccharide pectin, ionic cross-links form between pectin chains, giving rise to a gel network in dilute solution. In this work, dynamic light scattering (DLS) is employed to study…
The behavior of highly charged short rod-like polyelectrolytes near oppositely charged planar surfaces is investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. A detailed microstructural study, including monomer and fluid charge distribution,…
We study the effective interaction between differently charged polyelectrolyte-colloid complexes in electrolyte solutions via Monte Carlo simulations. These complexes are formed when short and flexible polyelectrolyte chains adsorb onto…
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…
In an externally imposed electrolyte (salt) concentration gradient, charged colloids drift at speeds of order one micrometre per second. This phenomenon is known as diffusiophoresis. In systems with multiple salts and 'crossed' salt…
Polymer topology, which plays a principal role in the rheology of polymeric fluids, and non-equilibrium materials, which exhibit time-varying rheological properties, are topics of intense investigation. Here, we push composites of circular…
By molecular dynamics simulation, we study the charge inversion phenomenon of a rod macroion in the presence of polyelectrolyte counterions. We simulate electrophoresis of the macroion under an applied electric field. When both counterions…
Structural and thermodynamic properties of the model solution containing charged oligomers and the equivalent number of counterions were studied by means of the canonical Monte Carlo simulation technique. The oligomers are represented as…
We investigate the phenomenon of multilayer formation via layer-by-layer deposition of alternating charge polyelectrolytes. Using mean-field theory, we find that a strong short-range attraction between the two types of polymer chains is…
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…