# Kinetics of condensation of flexible polyelectrolytes in poor solvents: effects of solvent quality, valence and size of counterions

Source: [Kinetics of condensation of flexible polyelectrolytes in poor solvents: effects of solvent quality, valence and size of counterions](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa1e9b7a2b558e293237a1>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-23T15:28:16.665Z

Authors: Namkyung Lee, D. Thirumalai

Published: 1999-07-13T19:50:48.000Z

## Abstract

The collapse kinetics of strongly charged polyelectrolytes in poor solvents is investigated by Langevin simulations and scaling arguments. The rate of collapse increases sharply as the valence of counterions, z, increases from one to four. The combined system of the collapsed chain and the condensed counterions forms a Wigner crystal when the solvent quality is not too poor provided z \>= 2. For very poor solvents the morphology of the collapsed structure resembles a Wigner glass. For a fixed z and quality of the solvent the efficiency of collapse decreases dramatically as the size of the counterion increases. A valence dependent diagram of states in poor solvents is derived.

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## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9907199>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/9907199.pdf>)