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

• DOI: 10.1038/srep23434
• Publication Date: 2016-03-21T10:33:17Z
• Authors: Xi Zhang; Jin-Si Zhang; Ya-Zhou Shi; Xiao-Long Zhu; Zhi-Jie Tan
• Keywords: Pair potential; Poisson–Boltzmann equation

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