Effect of pH on structure of charged nanoparticles in oppositely charged polyelectrolyte solutions

We study the effect of pH of the solution on the structural characteristics of a system of weakly charged spherical particles in oppositely charged, dissociable polyelectrolyte solutions. The pH dependent dissociation of weak polyelectrolytes is known to affect the adsorption and bridging of polymers on the particles. We have used a hybrid method of single chain in mean field theory and the solution of general Poisson’s equation in a semi-grand canonical framework. We study the effect of charge of particles, volume fraction of particles and polymers, concentration of polymers on the structural characteristics of the suspension.