TY - JOUR
T1 - Monte Carlo Study of Coulombic Criticality in Polyelectrolytes
AU - Orkoulas, G.
AU - Kumar, Sanat K.
AU - Panagiotopoulos, Athanassios Z.
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - The role of charges in determining the water solubility of polyelectrolytes, a question of considerable relevance to biology, is currently unresolved. We use computer simulations to study the purely Coulombic phase separation of flexible polyelectrolytes with monovalent counterions in an athermal solvent. In agreement with recent theories we find that the critical temperature for this transition increases with chain length, but that the critical density remains unchanged. We therefore stress that the phase behavior of polyelectrolytes is qualitatively different from uncharged polymers, where the critical density decreases towards zero for long chains.
AB - The role of charges in determining the water solubility of polyelectrolytes, a question of considerable relevance to biology, is currently unresolved. We use computer simulations to study the purely Coulombic phase separation of flexible polyelectrolytes with monovalent counterions in an athermal solvent. In agreement with recent theories we find that the critical temperature for this transition increases with chain length, but that the critical density remains unchanged. We therefore stress that the phase behavior of polyelectrolytes is qualitatively different from uncharged polymers, where the critical density decreases towards zero for long chains.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.048303
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.048303
M3 - Article
C2 - 12570467
AN - SCOPUS:4544358784
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 90
SP - 4
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 4
ER -