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

Akinchina, A; Shusharina, NP; Linse, P

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.

Citation

Akinchina, A., Shusharina, N., & Linse, P. (2004). Diblock polyampholytes grafted onto spherical particles : Monte Carlo simulation and lattice mean-field theory. Langmuir, 20(23), 10351-10360. https://doi.org/10.1021/la0490386

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2004
• Deposit Date: Mar 3, 2017
• Journal: Langmuir
• Print ISSN: 0743-7463
• Electronic ISSN: 1520-5827
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 23
• Pages: 10351-10360
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/la0490386
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/la0490386
• Related Public URLs: http://pubs.acs.org/journal/langd5/about.html
• Additional Information: Funders : Swedish Research Council (VR)