Related papers: Rod-like Polyelectrolyte Brushes with Mono- and Mu…
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…
Non equilibrium coarse grained, dissipative particle dynamics simulations of complex fluids, made up of polymer brushes tethered to planar surfaces immersed in a solvent yield non monotonic behavior of the friction coefficient as a function…
The purpose of this study is to provide data for the primitive model of the electrical double layer, where ions are modeled as charged hard spheres, the solvent as an implicit dielectric background (with dielectric constant $\epsilon=…
The behavior of a polyelectrolyte adsorbed on a charged substrate of high-dielectric constant is studied by both Monte-Carlo simulation and analytical methods. It is found that in a low enough ionic strength medium, the adsorption…
A simple model is presented to calculate the potential of mean force between a polyion and a multivalent counterion inside a polyelectrolite solution. We find that under certain conditions the electrostatic interactions can lead to a strong…
The influence of the chain degree of ionization on the adsorption of weak polyelectrolytes on neutral and on oppositely and likely charged surfaces is investigated for the first time, by means of Monte Carlo simulations with the mesoscopic…
We present results of molecular dynamics simulations of strong, flexible polyelectrolyte chains in solution with added salt. The effect of added salt on the polyelectrolyte chain structure is fully treated for the first time as a function…
A new quantitative theory for polyelectrolytes in salt free dilute solutions is developed. Depending on the electrostatic interaction strength, polyelectrolytes in solutions can undergo strong stretching (with polyelectrolyte dimension…
Properties of polyelectrolytes in tetravalent salt solutions are intensively investigated by a coarse-grained model. The concentration of salt and the size of tetravalent counterions are found playing a decisive role on chain properties. If…
A mean-field approach is used to analyze equilibrium conformations of polyelectrolyte dendrigrafts comprising ionically charged dendrons attached by focal points to a flexible linear backbone. Power law dependences for local structural…
We study the Brownian dynamics of flexible and semiflexible polymer chains densely grafted on a flat substrate, upon rapid quenching of the system when the quality of solvent becomes poor and chains attempt collapse into a globular state.…
Titration of methacrylic acid / ethyl-acrylate copolymers is studied experimentally and theoretically. At low salt concentrations, this polyacid exhibits a plateau in the titration curve below the neutralization point. The plateau has been…
We study the effect of polydispersity on the structure of polymer brushes by analytical theory, a numerical self-consistent field approach, and Monte Carlo simulations. The polydispersity is represented by the Schulz-Zimm chain-length…
We report on a study of the shape of a stiff, charged rod that is subjected to equal and opposite force couples at its two ends. Unlike a neutral elastic rod, which forms a constant curvature configuration under such influences, the charged…
We examine the role of the condensing agent in the formation of polyelectrolyte bundles, via grand-canonical Monte Carlo simulations. Following recent experiments we use linear, rigid divalent cations of various lengths to induce…
Mean-field electrostatics is used to calculate the bending moduli of an electric double layer for fixed surface charge density of a macroion in a symmetric 1:1 electrolyte. The resulting expressions for bending stiffness, Gaussian modulus,…
We applied the mean-field approach to a columnar bundle assembled by the parallel arrangement of stiff polyelectrolyte rods in a salt bath. The electrostatic potential can be divided into two regions: inside the bundle for condensed…
We have studied the response of surface properties and swelling behaviors of annealed poly(2-vinyl pyridine) (P2VP) brushes covalently tethered to solid planar surfaces to divalent salts in aqueous solutions at varied pH values. Results…
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,…
We examine the interactions between polyelectrolytes (PEs) and uncharged substrates at conditions corresponding to a dielectric discontinuity between the aqueous solution and the substrate. To this end, we vary the relevant system…