Mechanism of chain collapse of strongly charged polyelectrolytes

Abstract

We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of a charged polymer in a good solvent in the regime where the chain is collapsed. We analyze the dependence of the gyration radius $R_g$ on the reduced Bjerrum length ${\ell }_B$ and find two different regimes. In the first one, called as a weak electrostatic regime, $R_g\sim {\ell }_B^{-1/2}$, which is consistent only with the predictions of the counterion-fluctuation theory. In the second one, called a strong electrostatic regime, we find $R_g\sim {\ell }_B^{-1/5}$. To explain the novel regime we modify the counterion-fluctuation theory.

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• Electrostatic Correlations and the Polyelectrolyte Self Energy
• Phase Behavior of Melts of Diblock-Copolymers with One Charged Block
• The conformational phase diagram of neutral polymers in the presence of attractive crowders
• The explicit characterization of counterion dynamics around a flexible polyelectrolyte
• Gaussian polymer chains in a harmonic potential: The path integral approach
• The Effect of Explicit Polar Species on Conformational Behavior of a Single Polyelectrolyte Chain
• Regimes of strong electrostatic collapse of a highly charged polyelectrolyte in a poor solvent