Field-induced alignment of flexible polyelectrolytes in solution

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-26-2010

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study dynamical coupling between conformational fluctuations of a highly charged flexible macromolecule and its surrounding ionic cloud. We find that the basic model of a polyelectrolyte as a chain of charged monomers captures the main experimental findings on the field-induced alignment of polyelectrolytes despite its simplicity. Contrary to current theories, the correlated local charge and field fluctuations in the vicinity of the macromolecule are found to dominate alignment along an external field. We suggest that short-lived monomer-counterion clustering can be probed by measuring the field-induced anisotropy of x-ray and neutron scattering from polymer solutions. © 2010 The American Physical Society.

Identifier

77953088992 (Scopus)

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

External Full Text Location

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.218303

e-ISSN

10797114

ISSN

00319007

Issue

21

Volume

104

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS