Related papers: Collapse of Flexible Polyelectrolytes in Multivale…
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…
It is well established that when multivalent counterions or salts are added to a solution of highly-charged polyelectrolytes (PEs), correlation effects can cause charge inversion of the PE, leading to electrophoretic mobility (EM) reversal.…
A variational approach is used to calculate free energy and conformational properties in polyelectrolytes. The true bond and Coulomb potentials are approximated by a trial isotropic harmonic energy containing monomer-monomer force constants…
The behavior of a neutral polyampholyte ($PA$) chain with $N$ monomers, in an ionic solution, is analyzed in the framework of the full Debye-H$\ddot u $ckel-Bjerrum-Flory $(DHBjF)$ theory. A $PA$ chain, that in addition to the neutral…
We analyze solutions of strongly charged chains bridged by linkers such as multivalent ions. The gelation induced by the strong short range electrostatic attractions is dramatically suppressed by the long range electrostatic correlations…
A simple theory of the fluid state of a charged colloidal suspension is proposed. The full free energy of a polyelectrolyte solution is calculated. It is found that the counterions condense onto the polyions forming clusters composed of one…
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…
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,…
Phase separation in salt-free symmetric mixtures of oppositely charged rodlike polyelectrolytes is studied using quasi-analytical calculations. Stability analyses for the isotropic-isotropic and the isotropic-nematic phase transitions in…
Although the volume transition of the polyelectrolyte gel has been studied for decades, little research on the effects of size of the mobile ions has been conducted. In the present paper, Tanaka classical theory of polyelectrolyte gel is…
The experimentally observed swelling and collapse response of weakly charged polymers to the addition of specific salts displays quite convoluted behavior that is not easy to categorize. Here we use a minimalistic implicit solvent /…
Polyelectrolytes under confinement are crucial for energy storage and for understanding biomolecular functions. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we analyze a polyelectrolyte solution confined between two oppositely charged planar…
Conformational transitions of flexible molecules, especially those driven by hydrophobic effects, tend to be hindered by desolvation barriers. For such transitions, it is thus important to characterize and understand the interplay between…
Strong coupling phenomena, such as the like charged macroions attraction, opposite charged macroions repulsion, charge renormalization or charge inversion, are known to be mediated by multivalent counterions. Most theories treat the…
We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a charged polymer in a good solvent in the regime where the chain is collapsed. We analyze the dependence of the gyration radius $R_g $ on the reduced Bjerrum length $\ell_B$ and find…
Starting with a model Hamiltonian, we study using the uniform expansion method conformational behavior of polyelectrolytes in the presence and absence of salt. The uniform expansion method yields all the important local length scales in the…
Nucleic acids are negatively charged macromolecules and their structure properties are strongly coupled to metal ions in solutions. In this paper, the salt effects on the flexibility of single stranded (ss) nucleic acid chain ranging from…
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 present a numerical study of polyelectrolytes electrophoresing in free solution while squeezed by an axisymmetric confinement force transverse to their net displacement. Hybrid multi-particle collision dynamics and molecular dynamics…
Using computer simulations, the electrophoretic motion of a positively charged colloid (macroion) in an electrolyte solution is studied in the framework of the primitive model. Hydrodynamic interactions are fully taken into account by…