Polyelectrolyte Multilayering on a Charged Planar Surface

TL;DR

This study uses Monte Carlo simulations to analyze how oppositely charged polyelectrolytes adsorb onto charged surfaces, revealing the effects of chain length and short-range attractions on layer stability and structure.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the equilibrium structure of polyelectrolyte multilayers, emphasizing the role of non-electrostatic attractions in layer formation.

Findings

Layer stability depends on short-range attraction strength.

Chain length influences multilayer microstructure.

Qualitative agreement with recent experimental results.

Abstract

The adsorption of highly \textit{oppositely} charged flexible polyelectrolytes (PEs) on a charged planar substrate is investigated by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We study in detail the equilibrium structure of the first few PE layers. The influence of the chain length and of a (extra) non-electrostatic short range attraction between the polycations and the negatively charged substrate is considered. We show that the stability as well as the microstructure of the PE layers are especially sensitive to the strength of this latter interaction. Qualitative agreement is reached with some recent experiments.