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Micelle Formation in Polyectrolytes with Hydrophobic Side Chains and Aggregation of Micelles

Objective

The physics of attractive interactions among like-charged polyelectrolytes such as DNA and F-actin biopolymers, as well as synthetic polymers has been an active area of research in recent years. Such attractive forces contradict the expectations of mean field theories. These forces lead to formation of well-defined nanostructures, and therefore a through understanding of this mechanism is of fundamental importance for design and control of biological and synthetic systems. In order to gain insight into this complex system model synthetic molecules can be utilized. The rigid poly(p-phenylene) with hydrophobic side groups has a simple architecture, yet a rich phase diagram. Independent of the molecular weight (MW) these highly charged molecules self-organize into micelles with a radial and axial aggregation number of ~15 and ~5 molecules, respectively. Interestingly, the length of these bundles is much longer that the persistence length of individual molecules. As the concentration is increased clustering of micelles, transition to a nematic phase, and finally a two dimensional crystal is observed. These observations of aggregation of charged micelles suggests that there are indeed attractive forces between these like-charged micelles.
The goal of this research proposal is to understand the hierarchical organization of rod-like polyelectrolytes with hydrophobic side chains. The organization of these polyelectrolytes will be studied in three different levels. The aggregation of polyelectrolytes into finite size aggregates, the attractive interactions among like-charged micelles, and finally bundle formation upon aggregation of these charged micelles will be studied. In this study computer simulations will be utilized to study coarse-grained models, which will include important characteristic features of the experimental system. The simulation results will be compared with the existing theoretical and computational studies on rod-like polyelectrolyte systems.

Call for proposal

FP6-2002-MOBILITY-5
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Coordinator

MAX PLANCK GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN E.V.
EU contribution
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Address
Hofgartenstrasse 8
101062 MUENCHEN
Germany

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Total cost
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