Issue 19, 2018

Influence of dielectric inhomogeneities on the structure of charged nanoparticles in neutral polymer solutions

Abstract

We study the structural characteristics of a system of charged nanoparticles in a neutral polymer solution while accounting for the differences in the dielectric constant between the particles, polymer and the solvent. We use a hybrid computational methodology involving a combination of single chain in mean-field simulations and the solution of the Poisson's equation for the electrostatic field. We quantify the resulting particle structural features in terms of radial distribution function among particles as a function of the dielectric contrast, particle charge, particle volume fraction and polymer concentration. In the absence of polymers, charged macroions experience increased repulsion with a lowering of the ratio of particle to solvent dielectric constant. The influence of the dielectric contrast between the particle and the solvent however diminishes with an increase in the particle volume fraction and/or its charge. In the presence of neutral polymers, similar effects manifest, but with the additional physics arising from the fact that the polymer-induced interactions are influenced by the dielectric contrast of the particle and solvent.

Graphical abstract: Influence of dielectric inhomogeneities on the structure of charged nanoparticles in neutral polymer solutions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Feb 2018
Accepted
17 Apr 2018
First published
27 Apr 2018

Soft Matter, 2018,14, 3748-3759

Author version available

Influence of dielectric inhomogeneities on the structure of charged nanoparticles in neutral polymer solutions

R. Samanta and V. Ganesan, Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 3748 DOI: 10.1039/C8SM00298C

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