Interactions between Rigid Polyelectrolytes Mediated by Ordering and Orientation of Multivalent Nonspherical Ions in Salt Solutions

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

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2023-04-14

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en

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Physical Review Letters, Volume 130, issue 15

Abstract

Multivalent ions in solutions with polyelectrolytes (PEs) induce electrostatic correlations that can drastically change ion distributions around the PEs and their mutual interactions. Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we show how in addition to valency, ion shape and concentration can be harnessed as tools to control rigid like-charged PE-PE interactions. We demonstrate a correlation between the orientational ordering of aspherical ions and how they mediate the effective PE-PE attraction induced by multivalency. The interaction type, strength, and range can thus be externally controlled in ionic solutions. Our results can be used as generic guidelines to tune the self-assembly of like-charged polyelectrolytes by variation of the characteristics of the ions.

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Funding Information: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland through its Centres of Excellence Programme (2022-2029, LIBER) under Project No. 346111 (M. S.) and Academy of Finland Project No. 307806 (PolyDyna) (T. A.-N.). The work was also supported by Technology Industries of Finland Centennial Foundation TT2020 grant (T. A.-N.). We are grateful for the support by FinnCERES Materials Bioeconomy Ecosystem. Computational resources by CSC IT Centre for Finland and RAMI—RawMatters Finland Infrastructure are also gratefully acknowledged. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.

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Vahid, H, Scacchi, A, Sammalkorpi, M & Ala-Nissila, T 2023, ' Interactions between Rigid Polyelectrolytes Mediated by Ordering and Orientation of Multivalent Nonspherical Ions in Salt Solutions ', Physical Review Letters, vol. 130, no. 15, 158202 . https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.158202