Adsorption kinetics of polyacrylamide-based polyelectrolyte onto a single silica particle studied using microfluidics and optical tweezers

Abstract

Hypothesis: Polyelectrolyte adsorption is considered important in tuning the surface property and the fate of particles; however, often studied on macroscopic surfaces. To gain insights into how polyelectrolytes are adsorbed onto a single particle, it is imperative to utilize techniques capable of elucidating adsorption kinetics on a single-particle level in a controlled flow field.

Experiments: The polyelectrolyte adsorption kinetics was investigated by electrophoretic mobility measurements combined with the kinetics study onto a single-particle viewpoint using microfluidics and optical tweezers. We directly evaluated the thickness, δ_H, of adsorbed polyelectrolyte onto a negatively-charged silica particle to deduce the adsorbed polyelectrolyte's conformation. The effect of charge density and salt concentrations were studied.

Findings: All polyelectrolytes exhibited dependence of δ_H on salt concentration. The attractive interactions control the cationic polyelectrolytes adsorption process. The δ_H depends on charge density indicating more loops and tail confirmation for the weakly-charged polyelectrolytes. The anionic polyelectrolytes showed a dependence of the initial rate and saturation value of δ_H on salt concentrations, attributed to the repulsion between charged segments and the silica surfaces. Here, we present new insights into the polyelectrolyte adsorption kinetics, particularly the influence of electrostatic interaction from the single-particle perspective, inaccessible to conventional bulk measurements.

Keywords: Adsorption kinetics; Hydrodynamic flow; Optical tweezers; Polyelectrolyte; Polymer conformation.