Dear Colleagues,

Polyelectrolyte solutions and gels are of broad scientific and technological interest due to their crucial role in the functionality of many biological processes, and they are essential for the development of many modern materials. The main attribute of systems of charged macromolecules is that all molecules are cooperatively correlated both topologically and electrostatically in a medium of highly polarizable solvent/environment and small mobile ions. However, there are immense theoretical and computational challenges in achieving a predictive capability in this field due to the emergence of long-ranged correlations among all the components of the charged systems. While a fundamental understanding of the behavior of charged macromolecules remains as one of the major challenges in polymer science, soft matter, and biological science, many advances have recently been achieved.

The aim of this Special Issue is to highlight the progress in the theoretical and computational modeling of polyelectrolyte solutions and gels in understanding the conformations of isolated macromolecules or nanogels and their charge regularization, polarizability of the medium, specific ion effects, multivalency, mobility of macromolecules of different chemical architectures, intrinsically disordered proteins, crowded solutions, adsorption to charged brushes, dendrimers and membranes, self-assembly of proteins and coacervates, morphology of charged block copolymers, kinetic pathways of complexation among macromolecules, critical phenomena, and flow effects.

Dr. Alexandros Chremos
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• solvation/hydration
• self-assembly
• conductivity
• ion partition
• charged block copolymers
• coacervates