Repulsion between oppositely charged planar macroions

The repulsive interaction between oppositely charged macroions is investigated using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations of an unrestricted primitive model, including the effect of inhomogeneous surface charge and its density, the depth of surface charge, the cation size, and the dielectric perm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-08, Vol.8 (8), p.e69436-e69436
Main Authors: Jho, YongSeok, Brown, Frank L H, Kim, MahnWon, Pincus, Philip A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biology
Cations
Cations - chemistry
Charge density
Computer simulation
Dielectric constant
Electric properties
Electrolytes
Ions - chemistry
Laboratories
Materials Science
Models, Chemical
Monte Carlo Method
Monte Carlo methods
Osmosis
Osmotic Pressure
Permittivity
Physics
Salts
Solvents
Studies
Surface charge
Theory
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Summary:The repulsive interaction between oppositely charged macroions is investigated using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations of an unrestricted primitive model, including the effect of inhomogeneous surface charge and its density, the depth of surface charge, the cation size, and the dielectric permittivity of solvent and macroions, and their contrast. The origin of the repulsion is a combination of osmotic pressure and ionic screening resulting from excess salt between the macroions. The excess charge over-reduces the electrostatic attraction between macroions and raises the entropic repulsion. The magnitude of the repulsion increases when the dielectric constant of the solvent is lowered (below that of water) and/or the surface charge density is increased, in good agreement with experiment. Smaller size of surface charge and the cation, their discreteness and mobility are other factors that enhance the repulsion and charge inversion phenomenons.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0069436