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Strong and weak polyelectrolyte adsorption onto oppositely charged curved surfaces

  • Polyelectrolytes are macromolecules composed of charged monomers and exhibit unique properties due to the interplay of their flexibility and electrostatic interactions. In solution, they are attracted to oppositely charged surfaces and interfaces and exhibit a transition to an adsorbed state when certain conditions are met concerning the charge densities of the polymer and surface and the properties of the solution. In this review, we discuss two limiting cases for adsorption of flexible polyelectrolytes on curved surfaces: weak and strong adsorption. In the first case, adsorption is strongly influenced by the entropic degrees of freedom of a flexible polyelectrolyte. By contrast, in the strong adsorption limit, electrostatic interactions dominate, which leads to particular adsorption patterns, specifically on spherical surfaces. We discuss the corresponding theoretical approaches, applying a mean-field description for the polymer and the polymer-surface interaction. For weak adsorption, we discuss the critical adsorption behavior byPolyelectrolytes are macromolecules composed of charged monomers and exhibit unique properties due to the interplay of their flexibility and electrostatic interactions. In solution, they are attracted to oppositely charged surfaces and interfaces and exhibit a transition to an adsorbed state when certain conditions are met concerning the charge densities of the polymer and surface and the properties of the solution. In this review, we discuss two limiting cases for adsorption of flexible polyelectrolytes on curved surfaces: weak and strong adsorption. In the first case, adsorption is strongly influenced by the entropic degrees of freedom of a flexible polyelectrolyte. By contrast, in the strong adsorption limit, electrostatic interactions dominate, which leads to particular adsorption patterns, specifically on spherical surfaces. We discuss the corresponding theoretical approaches, applying a mean-field description for the polymer and the polymer-surface interaction. For weak adsorption, we discuss the critical adsorption behavior by exactly solvable models for planar and spherical geometries and a generic approximation scheme, which is additionally applied to cylindrical surfaces. For strong adsorption, we investigate various polyelectrolyte patterns on cylinders and spheres and evaluate their stability. The results are discussed in the light of experimental results, mostly of DNA adsorption experiments.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Roland G. Winkler, Andrey G. CherstvyORCiD
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/12_2012_183
ISBN:978-3-642-40734-5; 978-3-642-40733-8
ISSN:0065-3195
Title of parent work (English):Advances in polymer science
Title of parent work (English):Advances in Polymer Science
Publisher:Springer
Place of publishing:Berlin
Editor(s):M. Muller
Publication type:Review
Language:English
Year of first publication:2014
Publication year:2014
Release date:2017/03/27
Volume:255
Number of pages:56
First page:1
Last Page:56
Organizational units:Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie
Peer review:Referiert
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