Computer Simulations of Polyelectrolyte Stars Near Walls

We present results from monomer‐resolved, Molecular Dynamics computer simulations of multiarm, star‐shaped polyelectrolytes brought in the vicinity of planar, uncharged walls. We demonstrate that polyelectrolyte stars are very robust against planar confinement, in the sense that they maintain their key properties from the bulk, despite their strong deformation due to the wall: the chains remain stretched, the radius is insensitive to the wall and the number of trapped counterions is barely affected by the wall. We supplement our study with measurements of the star‐wall force and a corresponding analytic theory.