Morphologies of planar polyelectrolyte brushes in a poor solvent: molecular dynamics simulations and scaling analysis.

摘要: Using molecular dynamics simulations and scaling analysis, we study the effect of solvent quality for polymer backbone, strength electrostatic interactions, chain degree polymerization, brush grafting density on conformations planar polyelectrolyte brushes in salt-free solutions. Polyelectrolyte forms: (1) vertically oriented cylindrical aggregates (bundles chains), (2) maze-like aggregate structures, or (3) thin polymeric layer covering a substrate. These different morphologies appear as result fine interplay between short-range monomer−monomer interactions. The thickness shows nonmonotonic dependence value Bjerrum length. It first increases with increasing length, then it begins to decrease. This behavior is counterion condensation within volume.