Interactions of a polyanion with a cationic micelle: Comparison of Monte Carlo simulations with experiment

Monte Carlo simulations were used to investigate the adsorption of a polyelectrolyte chain on an oppositely charged micelle. The influence of the concentration of monovalent salt on the isolated polyelectrolyte chain was investigated by considering the chain expansion factor and persistence length. The polyelectrolyte-micelle complex was characterized in terms of the amount of adsorbed polymer in trains, loops, and tails. The overcharging of the complex and the conformation of the adsorbed polyelectrolyte chain was also studied. The ionic strength adsorption-desorption limits were estimated at different micelle charge densities and compared to existing data for the experimental system of sulfonated poly(vinyl alcohol) and micelles of dimethyldodecylamineoxide of varying degrees of protonation. The effect of the relative micelle concentration on the adsorption-desorption limit of the system was also investigated.