Diblock polyampholytes grafted onto spherical particles : Monte Carlo simulation and lattice mean-field theory

Akinchina, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6837-6069, Shusharina, NP and Linse, P 2004, 'Diblock polyampholytes grafted onto spherical particles : Monte Carlo simulation and lattice mean-field theory' , Langmuir, 20 (23) , pp. 10351-10360.

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Abstract

Spherical brushes composed of diblock polyampholytes (diblock copolymers with oppositely charged blocks) grafted onto solid spherical particles in aqueous solution are investigated by using the primitive model solved with Monte Carlo simulations and by lattice mean-field theory. Polyampholyte chains of two compositions are considered: a copolymer with a long and a short block, A100B10, and a copolymer with two blocks of equal length, A50B50. The B block is end-grafted onto the surface, and its charge is varied, whereas the charge of the A block is fixed. Single-chain properties, radial and lateral spatial distributions of different types, and structure factors are analyzed. The brush structure strongly depends on the charge of the B block. In the limit of an uncharged B block, the chains are stretched and form an extended polyelectrolyte brush. In the other limit with the charges of the blocks compensating each other, the chains arecollapsedandformapolyelectrolytecomplexsurroundingtheparticles.Atintermediatechargeconditions, a polyelectrolyte brush and a polyelectrolyte complex coexist and constitute two substructures of the spherical brush. The differences of the brush structures formed by the A100B10 and A50B50 polyampholytes are also analyzed. Finally, a comparison of the predictions of the two theoretical approaches is made.

Item Type:	Article
Schools:	Schools > School of Environment and Life Sciences > Biomedical Research Centre
Journal or Publication Title:	Langmuir
Publisher:	ACS Publications
ISSN:	0743-7463
Related URLs:	Publication
Funders:	Swedish Research Council (VR)
Depositing User:	A Akinshina
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2017 09:38
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2022 18:16
URI:	https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/41439

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