We demonstrate that polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer thin films deposited on patterned posts with incredibly large numbers of bilayers, which would not be possible with the conventional Layer-by-Layer (LbL) deposition methods, can be obtained in a short process time using alternating polyelectrolyte droplets generated in a microfluidic channel, representing a significant advantage over the conve...

In this investigation surface force, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and ellipsometry techniques have been used to study the adsorption of a low-charge-density cationic polyelectrolyte on negatively charged surfaces. It is shown that the low cationicity of this polyelectrolyte induces an adsorption behavior which is limited by steric factors rather than by the substrate surface charge or poten...

The diMarzio theory has been extended to elucidate the intermolecular and intramolecular phase segregations of a single flexible chain polyelectrolyte in dilute salt-free solutions. At the long chain limit, this theory yields the formalism obtained from the more sophisticated Edward Hamiltonian for polyelectrolyte problems. The calculated phase diagram exhibits the features of a first-order pha...

We present results of the hybrid Monte Carlo/molecular dynamics simulations of the osmotic pressure of salt solutions of polyelectrolytes. In our simulations, we used a coarse-grained representation of polyelectrolyte chains, counterions and salt ions. During simulation runs, we alternate Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulation steps. Monte Carlo steps were used to perform small ion excha...

A recently developed photometric version of polyelectrolyte titration was applied for the determination of the number of charged residues on globular proteins. Based on the observation that oppositely charged polyelectrolytes form, in general, stoichiometric polyelectrolyte complexes, the protein solutions were incubated in excess with an oppositely charged polyelectrolyte, and the residual amo...

The behavior of a rod-like, water-soluble, polyelectrolyte-surfactant aggregate system (pC16TVB) in aqueous solution is characterized to determine the partitioning of surfactant in these systems and the impact on aggregate structure. These aggregates are generated by in situ polymerization of a cationic surfactant-hydrotrope wormlike micelle system. This system differs from most other polyelect...

Consisting of charged network swollen with ionic solution, polyelectrolyte gels are known for their salient characters including ion exchange and stimuli responsiveness. The active properties of polyelectrolyte gels are mostly due to the migration of solvent molecules and solute ions, and their interactions with the fixed charges on the network. In this paper, we extend the recently developed n...

Due to the migration of mobile molecules and ions, a thin diffusive layer of distributed charge--the electric double layer--forms at the interface between a polyelectrolyte gel and a liquid ionic solution. When two polyelectrolyte gels are brought closely together, the electric double layers overlap and interact with each other, resulting in an effective repulsion. The multiphysics-coupling nat...

Fluorescent conjugated polyelectrolytes with pendant ionic sulfonate and carboxylate groups are used to sense protease activity. Inclusion of the fluorescent conjugated polyelectrolyte into the assay scheme leads to amplification of the sensory response. The sensing mechanism relies on an electrostatic interaction between the conjugated polyelectrolyte and a peptide substrate that is labeled wi...

electrostatic potential as well as the local volume charge density are computed for a macromolecule by solving the poisson-boltzmann equation (pbe) using the finite element method (fem). as a verification, our numerical results for a one dimensional pbe, which corresponds to an infinite-length macromolecule, are compared with the existing analytical solution and good agreement is found. as a ma...