1999/12/27 by T. T. Nguyen, Toan T. Nguyen, Alexander Y. Grosberg +3 · 3 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Microfluidic and Capillary Electrophoresis Applications #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.85.1568
published as Phys. Rev. Lett., 85 (2000) 1568. · 4 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 1999/12/27 · openalex publication_date 2000/08/14 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Screening of a strongly charged macroion by oppositely charged colloidal particles, micelles, or short polyelectrolytes is considered. Because of strong lateral repulsion such multivalent counterions form a strongly correlated liquid at the surface of the macroion. This liquid provides correlation-induced attraction of multivalent counterions to the macroion surface. As a result even a moderate concentration of multivalent counterions in the solution inverts the sign of the net macroion charge. We show that at high concentration of monovalent salt the absolute value of inverted charge can be larger than the bare one. This giant inversion of charge can be observed in electrophoresis.