Critical adsorption of polyelectrolytes onto planar and convex highly charged surfaces
- We study the adsorption–desorption transition of polyelectrolyte chains onto planar, cylindrical and spherical surfaces with arbitrarily high surface charge densities by massive Monte Carlo computer simulations. We examine in detail how the well known scaling relations for the threshold transition—demarcating the adsorbed and desorbed domains of a polyelectrolyte near weakly charged surfaces—are altered for highly charged interfaces. In virtue of high surface potentials and large surface charge densities, the Debye–Hückel approximation is often not feasible and the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann approach should be implemented. At low salt conditions, for instance, the electrostatic potential from the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation is smaller than the Debye–Hückel result, such that the required critical surface charge density for polyelectrolyte adsorption σc increases. The nonlinear relation between the surface charge density and electrostatic potential leads to a sharply increasing critical surface charge density with growingWe study the adsorption–desorption transition of polyelectrolyte chains onto planar, cylindrical and spherical surfaces with arbitrarily high surface charge densities by massive Monte Carlo computer simulations. We examine in detail how the well known scaling relations for the threshold transition—demarcating the adsorbed and desorbed domains of a polyelectrolyte near weakly charged surfaces—are altered for highly charged interfaces. In virtue of high surface potentials and large surface charge densities, the Debye–Hückel approximation is often not feasible and the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann approach should be implemented. At low salt conditions, for instance, the electrostatic potential from the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation is smaller than the Debye–Hückel result, such that the required critical surface charge density for polyelectrolyte adsorption σc increases. The nonlinear relation between the surface charge density and electrostatic potential leads to a sharply increasing critical surface charge density with growing ionic strength, imposing an additional limit to the critical salt concentration above which no polyelectrolyte adsorption occurs at all. We contrast our simulations findings with the known scaling results for weak critical polyelectrolyte adsorption onto oppositely charged surfaces for the three standard geometries. Finally, we discuss some applications of our results for some physical–chemical and biophysical systems.…
Author details: | Sidney J. de Carvalho, Ralf MetzlerORCiDGND, Andrey G. CherstvyORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/8/083037 |
ISSN: | 1367-2630 |
Title of parent work (English): | New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics |
Subtitle (English): | the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann approach |
Publisher: | IOP Publ. |
Place of publishing: | London |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2016/08/18 |
Publication year: | 2016 |
Publishing institution: | Universität Potsdam |
Contributing corporation: | Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft |
Release date: | 2016/12/01 |
Tag: | Debye screening; critical phenomena; electrostatic interactions; polyelectrolyte adsorption |
Volume: | 18 |
Funding institution: | Universität Potsdam, Publikationsfonds |
Funding number: | PA 2016_33 |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Grantor: | Publikationsfonds der Universität Potsdam |
Publishing method: | Open Access |
License (English): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0 Unported |
External remark: | Zweitveröffentlichung in der Schriftenreihe Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe ; 292 |