Polyampholyte adsorption on a charged sphere.

A theory of the adsorption of polyampholyte chains on a charged spherical particle is developed. It is shown that the equilibrium polymer density profile near an adsorbing particle may be found by balancing the polarization-induced attraction of polyampholytes to the charged spherical particle with the monomer-monomer repulsion. At intermediate values of the particle charge, the polyampholyte chains touching the surface of the particle form a self-similar flowerlike structure. The structure of an adsorbed polyampholyte in the flowerlike conformation is similar to that of a neutral star polymer.