Polyelectrolyte solutions with multivalent salts

Rod-like Polyelectrolyte Brushes with Mono- and Multivalent Counterions

A model of rod-like polyelectrolyte brushes in the presence of monovalent and multivalent counterions but with no added-salt is studied using Monte Carlo simulation. The average height of the brush, the histogram of rod conformations, and the counterion density profile are obtained for different values of the grafting density of the charge-neutral wall. For a domain of grafting densities, the b...

Theory of Polyelectrolyte Solutions

Lateral Structure Formation in Polyelectrolyte Brushes Induced by Multivalent Ions

We provide a theoretical model for the collapse of polyelectrolyte brushes in the presence of multivalent ions, focusing on the formation of lateral inhomogeneties in the collapsed state. Polyelectrolyte brushes are important in a variety of applications, including stabilizing colloidal particles and lubricating surfaces. Many uses rely on the extension of the densely grafted polymer chains fro...

Self-organization of multivalent counterions in polyelectrolyte brushes.

We investigated the swelling behavior and density distributions of polyion segments and multivalent counterions in polyelectrolyte brushes within a primitive model that represents both polyion segments and salt ions as charged spheres and the solvent as a continuous dielectric medium. The numerical performance of a previously proposed nonlocal density functional theory (NLDFT) was tested with M...

Multivalent ion driven condensation of DNA-actin polyelectrolyte mixtures

– Multivalent ions can induce condensation of like-charged polyelectrolytes into compact states, a process that requires different ion valence for different polyelectrolyte species. We have examined the trivalent ion induced condensation behavior in binary anionic polyelectrolyte mixtures consisting of DNA coils and F-actin rods, and observe a micro-phase separation between the two polyelectrol...