Ionic strength dependence of polyelectrolyte brush thickness.

Zhulina, Ekaterina B; Rubinstein, Michael · Soft Matter · 2012

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Intramolecular repulsion between charged monomers imposes intrinsic tension in polyion, modifies its elasticity, and changes the dependence of polyelectrolyte brush thickness on salt concentration. We demonstrate that intrinsic polyion tension gives rise to a plateau of the brush thickness in the middle of salt dominated regime and to a subsequent steeper brush contraction with increasing salt concentration.