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Effect of acid-base equilibria on the association behaviour of polyelectrolytes
Staňo, Roman ; Košovan, Peter (advisor) ; Heyda, Jan (referee)
Title: Effect of acid-base equilibria on the association behaviour of polyelec- trolytes Author: Roman Staňo Department: Department of physical and macromolecular chemistry Supervisor: RNDr. Peter Košovan, Ph.D., Department of physical and macro- molecular chemistry Abstract: Macromolecules bearing charged monomeric units are omnipresent in the nature. Living systems utilize complex mechanisms to regulate the charge on biomacromolecules, hence controlling their structure or activity. Recently, there has been a surge in the preparation of bioinspired macromolecular mate- rials, such as drug delivery systems or self-healing hydrogels, possessing a high degree of responsivity to the external stimuli, such as pH. However, the fundamen- tal understanding of pH-based charge regulation in both natural and synthetic systems seems to be lacking, presumably because of the deficiency of suitable theoretical models and computational methods. Herein, we used coarse-grained simulations to shed light on the underyling physical principles of the relation between the pH, ionization, multivalency and structure of macromolecules. We presented a novel model of complex coacervates, and used it to describe phase equilibria and ion partitioning in such systems. Next, we explored the effects of multivalent ions and charged...
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Effect of acid-base equilibria on the association behaviour of polyelectrolytes
Staňo, Roman ; Košovan, Peter (advisor) ; Heyda, Jan (referee)
Title: Effect of acid-base equilibria on the association behaviour of polyelec- trolytes Author: Roman Staňo Department: Department of physical and macromolecular chemistry Supervisor: RNDr. Peter Košovan, Ph.D., Department of physical and macro- molecular chemistry Abstract: Macromolecules bearing charged monomeric units are omnipresent in the nature. Living systems utilize complex mechanisms to regulate the charge on biomacromolecules, hence controlling their structure or activity. Recently, there has been a surge in the preparation of bioinspired macromolecular mate- rials, such as drug delivery systems or self-healing hydrogels, possessing a high degree of responsivity to the external stimuli, such as pH. However, the fundamen- tal understanding of pH-based charge regulation in both natural and synthetic systems seems to be lacking, presumably because of the deficiency of suitable theoretical models and computational methods. Herein, we used coarse-grained simulations to shed light on the underyling physical principles of the relation between the pH, ionization, multivalency and structure of macromolecules. We presented a novel model of complex coacervates, and used it to describe phase equilibria and ion partitioning in such systems. Next, we explored the effects of multivalent ions and charged...
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Interaction of weak polyelectrolytes with multivaltent ions
Staňo, Roman ; Košovan, Peter (advisor) ; Heyda, Jan (referee)
By means of molecular simulations, we study dissociative behavior of weak polyacids with added mutlivalent salt. Weak polyacids are macromolecules that bear weak acid groups, therefore, their ionization varies with pH. The titration curve of such an acid deviates from the ideal one - its ionization is suppressed because of the strong repulsion between charged groups on the polyacid contour. The presence of salt in solution of a polyacid enhances the ionzation due to the effects of electrostatic screening and counterion condensation. Up to now, the influence of the salt valency on the weak polyacid ionization has not been explored, although it plays an important role in biological processes. In this thesis, we examine weak polyacid solutions with added salt of various cation valencies (+1,+2,+3) at fixed charge ratio of salt cations to po- lymer segments. We show that increasing the salt valency promotes the polyelectrolyte ionization in a manner which is different from the effect of increasing ionic strength. A higher counterion valency leads to a lower value of the critical Manning parameter, initiating strong counterion condensation which results in additional ionization due to ion-ion correlations between the condensed counterions and charged groups of the polyelectrolytes.
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