Researchers
from North Carolina State University have developed a novel and versatile
modeling strategy to simulate polyelectrolyte systems. The model has
applications for creating new materials as well as for studying
polyelectrolytes, including DNA and RNA.
Polyelectrolytes
are chains of molecules that are positively or negatively charged when placed
in water. Because they are sensitive to changes in their environment,
polyelectrolytes hold promise for use in many industrial and biomedical
applications.
Using
the developed method the researchers can design novel polyelectrolyte-based
materials and can effectively
and efficiently investigate
the
salt dependence of conformational features of such materials in
aqueous solutions.
The paper,
"An implicit solvent ionic strength (ISIS) method to model polyelectrolyte
systems with dissipative particle dynamics," is published online in the
journal of
Macromolecular Theory
and Simulations.
