Ion-mediated interaction is important for the properties of polyelectrolytes such as colloids and nucleic acids. The effective pair interactions between two polyelectrolytes have been investigated extensively, but the many-body effect for multiple polyelectrolytes still remains elusive. In this work, the many-body effect in potential of mean force (PMF) between like-charged nanoparticles in var...

The dynamics of polyelectrolytes in salt-free solution is an unsolved problem. We have investigated the sedimentation and diffusion of xanthan and poly(N-methyl 4-vinyl pyridine iodide) (P4VPI) in salt-free dilute solutions by analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) using sedimentation velocity (SV) as a function of polyelectrolyte concentration (Cp). Our study reveals two concentration regimes di...

Work function modification by polyelectrolytes and tertiary aliphatic amines is found to be due to formation of a net dipole at the electrode interface, induced by interaction with its own image dipole in the electrode. In polyelectrolytes differences in size and side groups between the moving ions lead to differences in approach distance towards the surface. These differences determine magnitu...

1. Concanavalin A formed precipitates with polyelectrolytes such as fucoidan, RNA, heparin and bacterial lipopolysaccharides. 2. Precipitate formation also occurred between ficoll and concanavalin A. 3. Precipitate formation between concanavalin A and dextran or soluble starch was induced by the incorporation of phosphate groups into the unreactive glucans. 4. Introduction of polar groups, such...

The classical Voorn-Overbeek thermodynamic theory of complexation and phase separation of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes is generalized to account for the charge accessibility and hydrophobicity of polyions, size of salt ions, and pH variations. Theoretical predictions of the effects of pH and salt concentration are compared with published experimental data and experiments we performed, on...

Polymer dynamics at large fields in Rubinstein-Duke repton model is investigated theoretically. Simple diagrammatic approach and analogy with asymmetric simple exclusion models are used to analyze the reptation dynamics of polymers. It is found that for polyelectrolytes the drift velocity decreases exponentially as a function of the external field with an exponent depending on polymer size and ...

The fundamental length scales in semidilute Na-DNA aqueous solutions have been investigated by dielectric spectroscopy. The low- and the high-frequency relaxation modes are studied in detail. The length scale of the high-frequency relaxation mode at high DNA concentrations can be identified with the de Gennes-Pfeuty-Dobrynin correlation length of polyelectrolytes in semidilute solution, whereas...

We study the salt-dependent conformations of dilute flexible polyelectrolytes in solution via computer simulations. Low concentrations of multivalent salt induce the known conformational collapse of individual polyelectrolyte chains, but as the salt concentration is increased further this is followed by a reexpansion. We explicitly demonstrate that multivalent counterions can overcompensate the...

Although worm-like micelles have been studied for over 20 years, the diversity of macroscopic behavior and the potential analogy to polyelectrolytes has driven continued study. During the last year, development and application of more realistic scattering models has yielded a deeper understanding of micelle structure. Comprehensive studies on systematic systems are being reported that combine s...