SCFT equations

We will only briefly touch upon the many possible regimes that can be distinguished for polyelectrolyte adsorption. We have the case that electrostatics dominates (adsorption onto oppositely charged interfaces and low ionic strength). We may also have the case that adsorption is dominated by non-electrostatic interactions (as in homopolymer adsorption). In PE adsorption problems the ionic strength is a natural control parameter. One can easily find literature wherein the adsorbed amount of PE increases or decreases with ionic strength. There are also cases wherein the adsorption is non-monotonic. We will see that the interpretation for such results may not necessarily be unique.

I will dispatch the technical details of how to implement electrostatic interactions in the SCF machinery to a dedicated talk of 0.5 hours. The plan is to discuss a relatively easy to understand standalone c-program which solves for a standard PE adsorption problem. Such small program can be of help to understand better how SCF theory works in practice and may be a stepping stone for further research in this field.