Non-monotonic behavior of weak-polyelectrolytes adsorption on a cationic surface: A Monte Carlo simulation study

In this work, the weak polyelectrolyte (PE) adsorption on a strong cationic surface is studied with constant pH Monte Carlo simulations using a coarse-grained model. When a large number of PE chains is added to the system, the PE adsorbed amount titration curve exhibits a non-monotonic behavior, wit...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Narambuena, Claudio F., Blanco Andrés, Pablo M., Rodríguez, Adrián, Rodríguez, Diego E., Madurga Díez, Sergio, Garcés, Josep Lluís, Mas i Pujadas, Francesc
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/173137
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/173137
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Polielectròlits
Adsorció
Mètode de Montecarlo
Polyelectrolytes
Adsorption
Monte Carlo method
Descripción
Sumario:In this work, the weak polyelectrolyte (PE) adsorption on a strong cationic surface is studied with constant pH Monte Carlo simulations using a coarse-grained model. When a large number of PE chains is added to the system, the PE adsorbed amount titration curve exhibits a non-monotonic behavior, with the appearance of a maximum close to the intrinsic pº-value of the PE titratable groups. The apparent pa-value of the PE chains shows a non-trivial tendency depending on the pH-value and the surface coverage degree. In increasing the pH-value, the small anions that accompany the cationic surface are replaced by PE chains and small cations. For pH > ~ pº + 1, an evident charge reversion of surface is observed. These results are explained # analyzing the interplay between the attractive and repulsion electrostatic interactions between the different components of the system (inter- and intra-charged monomers of PE chains, the strong cationic surface and small ions) and their effects on the PE chain ionization.