Potential of mean force between like-charged nanoparticles: Many-body effect.

Sci Rep

Center for Theoretical Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro &Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.

Published: March 2016

AI Article Synopsis

  • Ion-mediated interactions significantly influence the behavior of polyelectrolytes like colloids and nucleic acids, with a focus on how multiple polyelectrolytes interact through many-body effects.
  • The study uses Monte Carlo simulations and nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory to assess the potential of mean force (PMF) between similarly charged nanoparticles in different salt solutions, revealing different repulsive or attractive interactions based on salt concentration and type.
  • Results indicate that at high 1:1 salt, interactions are weakly repulsive and additive, but this changes at low salt concentrations or with varying ion valence, highlighting the complex nature of many-body effects influenced by various factors like ion binding and concentration.

Article Abstract

Ion-mediated interaction is important for the properties of polyelectrolytes such as colloids and nucleic acids. The effective pair interactions between two polyelectrolytes have been investigated extensively, but the many-body effect for multiple polyelectrolytes still remains elusive. In this work, the many-body effect in potential of mean force (PMF) between like-charged nanoparticles in various salt solutions has been comprehensively examined by Monte Carlo simulation and the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann theory. Our calculations show that, at high 1:1 salt, the PMF is weakly repulsive and appears additive, while at low 1:1 salt, the additive assumption overestimates the repulsive many-body PMF. At low 2:2 salt, the pair PMF appears weakly repulsive while the many-body PMF can become attractive. In contrast, at high 2:2 salt, the pair PMF is apparently attractive while the many-body effect can cause a weaker attractive PMF than that from the additive assumption. Our microscopic analyses suggest that the elusive many-body effect is attributed to ion-binding which is sensitive to ion concentration, ion valence, number of nanoparticles and charges on nanoparticles.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4800448PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep23434DOI Listing

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