Speaker：Chair Prof. RudolfPodgornik

Time：December 11th, 2024, 9:30am

Location:Lecture Room 324, AISMST

Abstract:

I willdescribe the effects of charge-regulated acid/base equilibria on the swellingof polyelectrolyte gels by considering a combination of the Poisson−Boltzmanntheory and a two-site charge-regulation model based on the Langmuir adsorptionisotherm. By exploring the volume change as a function of salt concentrationfor both nanogels and microgels, it appears that at certain conditions the gelvolume exhibits a discontinuous swellingtransition, drivenexclusively by the charge-regulation mechanism and characterized by aclosed-loop phase diagram. These predictions can be tested experimentally forpolypeptide gels.

BriefBiography:

RudolfPodgornik is Chair Professor at the School of physical sciences, University ofChinese Academy Sciences in Beijing. He is a National Program Expert with aNational Specially Recruited Foreign Expert Honor. He specializes in softmatter physics, macromolecular physics and biophysics, with particular emphasison Coulomb fluids, Lifshitz theory of dispersion interaction, the Casimireffect, physics of membranes, polymers, and polyelectrolytes such as DNA, RNAand the physics of viruses. He authored more than 400 scientific articles thatwere cited more than 12000 times, and edited two books, thus making anoutstanding contribution to global scholarship.