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Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Controlling the Size, Shape and Stability of Supramolecular Polymers in Water
Published on: August 2, 2012
Interactions between Rigid Polyelectrolytes Mediated by Ordering and Orientation of Multivalent Nonspherical Ions in
Hossein Vahid1,2,3, Alberto Scacchi1,2,3, Maria Sammalkorpi2,3,4
1Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, P.O. Box 11000, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
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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