Importance of Varying Permittivity on the Conductivity of Polyelectrolyte Solutions

Florian Fahrenberger, Owen A. Hickey, Jens Smiatek, and Christian Holm
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 118301 – Published 10 September 2015
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Abstract

Dissolved ions can alter the local permittivity of water; nevertheless most theories and simulations ignore this fact. We present a novel algorithm for treating spatial and temporal variations in the permittivity and use it to measure the equivalent conductivity of a salt-free polyelectrolyte solution. Our new approach quantitatively reproduces experimental results unlike simulations with a constant permittivity that even qualitatively fail to describe the data. We can relate this success to a change in the ion distribution close to the polymer due to the buildup of a permittivity gradient.

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  • Received 9 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.118301

© 2015 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Polymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Florian Fahrenberger, Owen A. Hickey, Jens Smiatek, and Christian Holm*

  • Institut für Computerphysik, Universität Stuttgart, Allmandring 3, Stuttgart 70569, Germany

  • *holm@icp.uni-stuttgart.de

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 11 — 11 September 2015

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