Structure of Microgels with Debye–Hückel Interactions
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Models
2.1. Microgel

2.2. Brownian Multiparticle Collision Dynamics
2.3. Parameters
. The Lennard–Jones parameters are σ = 0.8l, ε/kBT = 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 for a poor solvent and 1.0 for a good solvent. For the bonds, we set ks = 103kBT/l2. The collision time is Δt = 0.1τ, and we perform 20 molecular dynamics simulation steps between collisions. To achieve a reasonable statistical accuracy, we performed, at least, 5.0 × 104 collision steps, which corresponds to 106 molecular dynamics simulation steps, after reaching a stationary state in every simulation. 3. Results
3.1. Microgel in Good Solvent (lD = 0)
for Nc = 0, 147 and 729 . Here,
is the square root of the average over all polymers of the mean square radius of gyration, where the radius of gyration of a polymer (
) itself is defined by:
~ (Nm − 1)v with the number of bonds. Thereby, the critical exponent, v, for the non-cross-linked polymers closely follows the theoretical prediction v ≈ 0.59 [39]. Similarly, the
values for the systems with Nc = 147 and 729 follow a power law; however, with the somewhat larger exponent v ≈ 0.62. Hence, cross-linking leads to swelling of the polymer chains.
~ (Nm − 1)0.62. Hence, the polymer conformations are determined by thermal fluctuations, intramolecular and intermolecular interactions and the cross-links.
of polymers on the bond number Nm − 1 for Nc = 0 (squares), 147 (open squares) and 729 (bullets) under good solvent conditions (lD = 0). The solid line is proportional to N0.59 and the dashed lineto N0.62.
of polymers on the bond number Nm − 1 for Nc = 0 (squares), 147 (open squares) and 729 (bullets) under good solvent conditions (lD = 0). The solid line is proportional to N0.59 and the dashed lineto N0.62.

3.2. Microgel in Poor Solvent (lD = 0)

scales as
∝ (Nm − 1)0.6 with polymer length, and the interface is less sharp. The scaling exponent, 0.6, is smaller than 0.62 obtained for microgels in a good solvent. Hence, the polymers are somewhat more compact for ε/kBT = 0.5 as compared to the bare good solvent system. The attractive interaction brings the polymers closer to the scaling behavior of free polymers.
3.3. Microgel with Debye–Hückel Interaction
3.3.1. Microgel Radius of Gyration
denotes the radius of gyration of a microgel under good solvent conditions.
denotes the radius of gyration of a microgel under good solvent conditions.
3.3.2. Microgel Structure Factor

3.3.3. Polymer Size Scaling
for freely jointed chains with fixed bond lengths [47,48,49]. Figure 8 shows the radii of gyration for the various considered systems. We obtain a rather good scaling behavior for all obtained values. For small L/Lp (≤ 2),
/Lp increases linearly with L/Lp, i.e., the polymers exhibit rod-like behavior, whereas for L/Lp ≳ 4, Rg/Lp ~ L0.6, i.e., it crosses over to self-avoiding walk behavior. Similar results have been reported in previous studies on a single polyelectrolyte chain [47,50]. The scaling results are in agreement with the observed dependencies of the structure factors of Figure 7.
/Lp on the ratio L/Lp for Nc = 0, 147 and 729, Np = 20 and 40 and lB/l = 1,2,5 and 9. The black line is proportional to (L/Lp)0.6 and the red line to L/Lp.
/Lp on the ratio L/Lp for Nc = 0, 147 and 729, Np = 20 and 40 and lB/l = 1,2,5 and 9. The black line is proportional to (L/Lp)0.6 and the red line to L/Lp.
3.3.4. Radial Monomer Distribution

3.3.5. Radial Polymer Conformation
(rcm), in a microgel. As shown in Figure 10, we find a qualitative difference for
/Lp > 2.5 and
/Lp < 1. For
/Lp > 2.5, i.e., lD/l ≲ 0.45,
exceeds the mean value at large rcm/Rg. Hence, polymers near the surface are swollen as compared to internal polymers. We attribute the inhomogeneities to anisotropic intramolecular interactions by short-range repulsion. Internal polymers experience an almost isotropic interaction, whereas at the surface, the symmetry is broken and repulsion is stronger from inside to outside, which leads to a swelling. For
/Lp < 1, i.e., lD/l ≳ 2,
is smaller than the average value at large rcm/Rg. Thus, the outside polymers are somewhat more compact than the internal polymers. This is attributed to the inhomogeneous radial monomer distribution, as displayed in Figure 9. The larger interaction range of the Debye-Hückel potential for these parameters combined with a larger number of neighbors leads to the stronger swelling of internal polymers than those at the surface. Overall, the effect is small, but is a consequence of the finite size of a microgel and is thus not present in bulk systems.
/Lp > 2.5 (top) and
/Lp < 1 (bottom), Nc = 147 and 729 and Nm = 20 and 40. The upper bounds of rcm are defined by the condition
.
/Lp > 2.5 (top) and
/Lp < 1 (bottom), Nc = 147 and 729 and Nm = 20 and 40. The upper bounds of rcm are defined by the condition
.
4. Summary and Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Kobayashi, H.; Winkler, R.G. Structure of Microgels with Debye–Hückel Interactions. Polymers 2014, 6, 1602-1617. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym6051602
Kobayashi H, Winkler RG. Structure of Microgels with Debye–Hückel Interactions. Polymers. 2014; 6(5):1602-1617. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym6051602
Chicago/Turabian StyleKobayashi, Hideki, and Roland G. Winkler. 2014. "Structure of Microgels with Debye–Hückel Interactions" Polymers 6, no. 5: 1602-1617. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym6051602
APA StyleKobayashi, H., & Winkler, R. G. (2014). Structure of Microgels with Debye–Hückel Interactions. Polymers, 6(5), 1602-1617. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym6051602

