Electrostatic interactions and conformations of polyelectrolyte chains

In the absence of additional strong electrolytes, polyelectrolyte chains are well known to be strongly correlated in dilute solutions. This work mainly focuses on various interactions in single and many polyelectrolyte chain systems depending upon various physical variables, such as ion sizes, charge densities, temperature, polymer concentration, polymer length, and monovalent salt concentration, related to such interactions. We will present our understanding that we have developed on this topic, especially for two systems - single isolated polyelectrolyte chains and oppositely charged polyelectrolyte chains. The significant results we have obtained show that for a given range of Coloumb strength, the counterion-release picture is valid. It also dominates the interactions for the substitution process involving polyelectrolyte chains. Consequently, the significant binding affinities are governed mainly by the translational entropy of the released ions.