Related papers: Conformation of a Polyelectrolyte Complexed to a L…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the local dynamics of counterion-charged polymer association at charge densities above and below the counterion condensation threshold. Surprisingly, the counterions form weakly-interacting…
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…
Complexation of a long flexible polyelectrolyte (PE) molecule with oppositely charged spherical particles such as colloids, micelles, or globular proteins in a salty water solution is studied. PE binds spheres winding around them, while…
The structure of polyelectrolytes is highly sensitive to small changes in the interactions between its monomers. In particular, interactions mediated by counterions play a significant role, and are affected by both specific molecular…
Polymer electrolytes are intensely investigated for use as solid electrolytes in next generation lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries. However, little is known about the structural and dynamical properties of polymer electrolytes close…
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…
Nonlinear elastic responses of short and stiff polyelectrolytes are investigated by dynamic simulations on a single molecule level. When a polyelectrolyte condensate undergoes a mechanical unfolding, two types of force-extension curves,…
This chapter deals with charged polymers (polyelectrolytes) in solution and at surfaces. The behavior of polyelectrolytes is markedly different from that of neutral polymers. In bulk solutions, i.e. disregarding the surface effect, there…
Counterion distribution around an isolated flexible polyelectrolyte in the presence of a divalent salt is evaluated using the adsorption model [M. Muthukumar, J. Chem. Phys. {\bf 120}, 9343 (2004)] that considers Bjerrum length, salt…
Molecular dynamics simulation and recent theory are used to examine density correlations in semidilute solutions of highly charged, intrinsically flexible and hydrophilic polyelectrolytes in low salt. Quantitative comparison with no…
We briefly discuss our recent field-theoretic study of polyelectrolyte complexation, which occurs in solutions of two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Charged systems require theoretical methods beyond the mean-field (or self-consistent…
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…
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…
The effective elasticity of highly charged stiff polyelectrolytes is studied in the presence of counterions, with and without added salt. The rigid polymer conformations may become unstable due to an effective attraction induced by…
The complexation of a polyelectrolyte with an oppositely charged spherical macroion is studied for both salt free and salty solutions. When a polyelectrolyte winds around the macroion, its turns repel each other and form an almost…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the behavior of a dilute solution of strongly charged polyelectrolytes in poor solvents, where we take counterions explicitly into account. We focus on the chain conformational properties under…
The transport of polyelectrolytes confined by oppositely charged surfaces and driven by a constant electric field is of interest in studies of DNA separation according to size. Using molecular dynamics simulations that include surface…
We present a model for describing flexible polyelectrolytes in a good solvent a nd in the presence of monovalent salt . The molecule composed by $N$ monomers is characterized by the end to end distanc e $R_e=b (Z-1)^\gamma$ and the number…
We apply extensive Molecular Dynamics simulations and analytical considerations in order to study the conformations and the effective interactions between weakly charged, flexible polyelectrolyte chains in salt-free conditions. We focus on…
We demonstrate that a highly charged polyelectrolyte confined in a spherical cavity undergoes reversible transformations between amorphous conformations to a four-fold symmetry morphology as a function of dielectric mismatch between the…