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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Polyelectrolytes Grafted to Curved Surfaces

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We present a scaling theory to describe equilibrium conformations of weakly charged polyelectrolyte molecules grafted at one end onto impermeable surfaces of various morphologies (spheres, cylinders) and of arbitrary curvature. We focus on the case of sufficiently densely grafted chains, i.e., on curved polyelectrolyte brushes. Different regimes of the behavior of curved polyelectrolyte brushes can be distinguished, depending on grafting density, surface curvature, and chain length. We present phase diagrams of the system describing these regimes and discuss the crossover conditions. We also analyze the effect of charge annealing in curved polyelectrolyte brushes.