Electrostatics and Colloid Interactions

When polymers carry electrical charges along their backbone, they interact with surrounding ions and solvent in ways that are difficult to predict and surprisingly rich in behavior. Polyelectrolyte research sits at the intersection of electrostatics and soft matter physics, using theory and simulation to understand how charged polymers arrange themselves in solution, how counterions condense onto their surface, and how thin electrical double layers govern forces between colloidal particles. These phenomena underpin everything from biological macromolecules like DNA and proteins to industrial applications in coatings, drug delivery, and water treatment. Active questions include how to accurately model ion-specific effects that classical mean-field theories miss, and how dielectric variations near charged interfaces reshape the electrokinetic behavior of particles in realistic, crowded environments.

Works

48,003

Total citations

921,089

Keywords

PolyelectrolytesElectrostaticsCounterion CondensationElectrokineticsDielectric ConstantSoft Matter Systems