Polyampholyte adsorption on a charged sphere - art. no. 051802

A theory of the adsorption of polyampholyte chains on a charged spherical p article is developed. It is shown that the equilibrium polymer density prof ile near an adsorbing particle map be found by balancing the polarization-i nduced attraction of polyampholytes to the charged spherical particle with the monomer-monomer repulsion. At intermediate values of the particle charg e, the polyampholyte chains touching the surface of the particle form a sel f-similar flowerlike structure. The structure of an adsorbed polyampholyte in the flowerlike conformation is similar to that of a neutral star polymer .