Polyampholyte Brushes Grafted on the Surface of a Spherical Cavity: Effect of the Charged Monomer Sequence, Grafting Density, and Chain Stiffness

Qianqian Cao, Hao You

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    12 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the conformational behaviors of the flexible and semiflexible polyampholytes coated onto the internal surface of a spherical cavity. Dependences of the brush structure and the local conformation of grafted chains on the sequence of charged monomers, the grafting density, and the chain stiffness are addressed. In the range of parameters studied, it was found that a significant transition of the brush structure occurs due to the variation of the charged monomer sequence. As the number of repeat charged monomers increases, both the flexible and semiflexible polyampholyte brushes change to the collapsed conformation. The spherical concave geometry tends to exclude the conformation of chains perpendicular to the grafting surface for the semiflexible case. In addition, we find that most counterions are depleted in the polyampholyte brush due to the strong electrostatic correlation between the oppositely charged monomers.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)6375-6384
    Number of pages10
    JournalLangmuir
    Volume31
    Issue number23
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jun 16 2015

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Materials Science
    • Condensed Matter Physics
    • Surfaces and Interfaces
    • Spectroscopy
    • Electrochemistry

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