TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kobayashi, Hideki
AU  - Winkler, Roland G.
TI  - Universal conformational properties of polymers in ionic nanogels
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 6
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2016-02162
SP  - 19836 -
PY  - 2016
AB  - Polyelectrolyte gels are known to undergo significant conformational changes in response to external stimuli such as pH, temperature, or the dielectric constant. Specifically, an increase of the degree of ionization associated with an increasing number of counterions leads to swelling of the network. For a macroscopically large gel, which is electrostatically neutral in its interior, swelling is no longer governed by electrostatic interactions, but rather by the osmotic pressure of counterions. However, this electrostatic neutrality is typically violated for nanogels, because counterions are free to leave a gel particle. Although nanogel-swelling exhibits similar features as swelling of micro- and macrogels, another mechanism has to be relevant. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations and scaling theory to unravel the structural properties of nanogels upon changing the electrostatic interactions. We demonstrate that the swelling of nanogels is governed by screened electrostatic interactions without a relevant contribution by the counterion osmotic pressure.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000368987800001
C6  - pmid:26830457
DO  - DOI:10.1038/srep19836
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/807744
ER  -