Simulations of Polyelectrolyte Adsorption to a Dielectric Like-Charged Surface

Abstract

We explore, using the recently developed efficient Monte Carlo simulation method, the interaction of an anionic polyelectrolyte solution with a like-charged dielectric surface. In addition to polyions, the solution also contains salt with either monovalent, divalent, or trivalent counterions. In agreement with recent experimental observations, we find that multivalent counterions can lead to strong adsorption of polyions onto the surface. On the other hand, addition of a 1:1 electrolyte diminishes the adsorption induced by the multivalent counterions. Dielectric discontinuity at the interface is found to play only a marginal role in polyion adsorption.

References in corpus (2)

• Simulations of Coulomb systems with slab geometry using an efficient 3d Ewald summation method
• Adsorption of cationic polyions to a hydrophobic surface in the presence of Hofmeister salts

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