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Collapse of polyelectrolyte brushes: Scaling theory and simulations

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The European Physical Journal E Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract:

We investigate polyelectrolyte brushes using both scaling arguments and molecular dynamics simulations. As a main result, we find a novel collapsed brush phase. In this phase, the height of the brush results from a competition between steric repulsion between ions and monomers and an attractive force due to electrostatic correlations. As a result, the monomer density inside the brush is independent of the grafting density and the polymerization index. For small ionic and monomer radii (or for large Bjerrum length) the brush undergoes a first-order phase transition from the osmotic into the collapsed state.

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Received 26 September 2000

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Csajka, F., Netz, R., Seidel, C. et al. Collapse of polyelectrolyte brushes: Scaling theory and simulations. Eur. Phys. J. E 4, 505–513 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170105

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170105

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