Manning-Oosawa counterion condensation.
Counterion condensation is a basic feature of 2D electrostatics exhibited by highly charged rodlike polymers such as DNA. In the framework of the Poisson Boltzmann equation with salt, we show that such a polymer of radius a attracts a condensate of thickness RM=A(axi)1/2 where xi is the Debye length and A depends weakly on the polymer charge density q0. To leading order in 1/ln(xi/a), we derive the condensate structure and show that free ions follow universal density profiles independent of a and q0. Generalizing this approach we calculate ion profiles for finite concentration solutions.
O'Shaughnessy
Ben
B
Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. bo8@columbia.edu
Yang
Qingbo
Q