2001/11/19 by Rene Messina, René Messina, Christian Holm +1
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Charge (physics) #Charge density #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Colloid #Computational chemistry #Coulomb #Counterion #Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions #Ion #Materials science #Molecular dynamics #Monomer #Organic chemistry #Physical chemistry #Physics #Polyelectrolyte #Polymer #Polymer Surface Interaction Studies #Polymer chemistry #Quantum mechanics #Surfactants and Colloidal Systems #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.65.041805
published as Phys. Rev. E VOL 65, 041805 (2002) · 4 pages, 4 figures (6 EPS files)
arxiv created 2001/11/19 · openalex publication_date 2002/04/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report results from a molecular dynamics simulation on the conformations of a long flexible polyelectrolyte complexed to a charged sphere, both negatively charged, in the presence of neutralizing counterions in the strong Coulomb coupling regime. The structure of this complex is very sensitive to the charge density of the polyelectrolyte. For a fully charged polyelectrolyte the polymer forms a dense two-dimensional "disk," whereas for a partially charged polyelectrolyte the monomers are spread over the colloidal surface. A mechanism involving the overcharging of the polyelectrolyte by counterions is proposed to explain the observed conformations.