Polyelectrolyte chain at thermal equilibrium: A comparison between the density functional theory framework (DFT) and the molecular dynamic simulations (MD)

By means of the density functional theory framework (DFT) as well as the molecular dynamic simulations (MD), a polyelectrolyte chain (PE) in the good solvent conditions at thermal equilibrium is studied. The strength of the electrostatic interactions is varied by the Bjerrum length of the solvent. It turns out that average extension of a PE scales with the degree of polymerization, very much similar to a neutral polymer chain in good solvent. Remarkably, the difference between a PE and a neutral chain appears to be solely in the correlations among monomers which are stored in the Virial coefficients. Interestingly, upon increasing the Bjerrum length of solvent, the chain shrinks. This outcome is confirmed by the DFT framework as well as the MD simulations. SIGNIFICANCEThe significance of this study is that it strongly criticizes the idea (already mentioned in T. Kreer, Soft Matter, 12, 3479 (2016)) that the PEs behave similar to a neutral ideal chain. This study could be useful in our understanding of biopolymers.