Physics – Condensed Matter – Soft Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2008-08-22
J. Phys. Chem. B (Letters) 112 (2008) 13177
Physics
Condensed Matter
Soft Condensed Matter
11 pages, 4 figures, submitted
Scientific paper
We investigate the behavior of single polyelectrolytes in multivalent salt solutions under the action of electric fields through computer simulations. The chain is unfolded in a strong electric field and aligned parallel to the field direction, and the chain size shows a sigmoidal transition. The unfolding electric field $E^*$ depends on the salt concentration and scales as $V^{-1/2}$ with $V$ being the ellipsoidal volume occupied by the chain. The magnitude of the electrophoretic mobility of chain drastically increases during the unfolding. The fact that $E^*$ depends on the chain length provides a plausible mechanism to separate long charged homopolymers by size in free solution electrophoresis via the unfolding transition of globule polyelectrolytes condensed by multivalent salt.
Hsiao Pai-Yi
Wu Kun-Mao
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