title: Finite-length effects on the coil-globule transition of a strongly charged polyelectrolyte chain in a salt-free solvent.
abstract: The nature of coil-globule transition and scaling behavior of a strongly charged polyelectrolyte chain in a solution system with explicit neutralizing counterions and solvent molecules are studied using replica-exchange Monte Carlo simulations, focusing on the effects of finite chain length. The results reveal that at the thermodynamic limit of infinitely long chain length, the coil-globule transition may remain first order. Phase transition temperatures at various ion concentrations are obtained by extrapolating the values obtained at finite chain lengths. Furthermore, it is found that the exponent ν of the radius of gyration, <R(g)(2)> ~ N(2ν), can be slightly larger than 1 under some conditions.
authors.affiliation: The MOE Key Laboratory of Weak Light Nonlinear Photonics and School of Physics, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yuhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: An-Chang
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Shi