Solvation force between tethered polyelectrolyte layers. A density functional approach

TL;DR

This study employs density functional theory to analyze how tethered polyelectrolyte layers influence solvation forces between charged plates in electrolyte solutions, considering various structural and compositional parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed density functional model for tethered polyelectrolyte layers and explores their effect on solvation forces under different conditions.

Findings

Solvation force varies with grafting density and chain length.

Chain architecture significantly affects the solvation force.

Electrolyte concentration influences the chain and solute structure.

Abstract

We use a version of the density functional theory to study the solvation force between two plates modified with a tethered layer of chains. The chains are built of tangentially jointed charged spherical segments. The plates are immersed in an electrolyte solution that involves cations, anions and solvent molecules. The latter molecules are modelled as hard spheres. We study the dependence of the solvation force and the structure of chains and of solute molecules on the grafting density, length of chains, architecture of the chains and on concentration of the solute.