Abstract
Complexation of a polyelectrolyte with an oppositely charged spherical macroion is studied for both salt-free and salty solutions. When a polyelectrolyte winds around the macroion, its turns repel each other and form an almost equidistant solenoid. It is shown that this repulsive correlations of turns lead to the charge inversion: more polyelectrolyte winds around the macroion than it is necessary to neutralize it. The charge inversion becomes stronger with increasing concentration of salt and can exceed 100%. Monte-Carlo simulation results agree with our analytical theory.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 324-338 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications |
Volume | 293 |
Issue number | 3-4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 15 2001 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors are grateful to A.Yu. Grosberg for many useful discussions and to S. Stoll and P. Chodanowski for the possibility to read their paper [16] before the publication. This work was supported by NSF DMR-9985985.
Keywords
- Charge inversion
- Polyelectrolyte
- Spherical macroion