Abstract:
The interaction between alternative/random polyelectrolyte composed by charged and neutral blocks and negatively charged surfactants were studied by molecular dynamics simulations. The effects of hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of neutral block of the alternative/random copolymer on the microstructure of the formed complex were investigated. The results show that the difference of adsorption abilities for alternative/random copolymer is negligible when the neutral blocks of polymer are hydrophilic and the bottle brush complexes are observed for both systems in the range of studied surfactant concentrations. However, the distribution of the charged blocks alternatively and randomly in polymers affects both the adsorption abilities to surfactants and the microstructure of the formed complex when the neutral blocks are hydrophobic. The bigger aggregates are formed in the system composed by hydrophobic random copolymer and surfactant and both of the bottle brush complex and smaller aggregations are observed in the mixed system of hydrophobic alternative copolymer and surfactant.