Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Surfactant-triggered disassembly of electrostatic complexes probed at
  optical and quartz crystal microbalance length scales   A critical advantage of electrostatic assemblies over covalent and
crystalline bound materials is that associated structures can be disassembled
into their original constituents. Nanoscale devices designed for the controlled
release of functional molecules already exploit this property. To bring some
insight into the mechanisms of disassembly and release, we study the disruption
of molecular electrostatics based interactions via competitive binding with
ionic surfactants. To this aim free-standing micron-size wires were synthesized
using oppositely charged poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and
poly(acrylic acid) coated iron oxide nanoparticles. The disassembly is induced
by the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfates that complex preferentially the
positive polymers. The process is investigated at two different length scales:
the length scale of the particles (10 nm) through the Quartz Crystal
Microbalance technique, and that of the wires (> 1 micron) via optical
microscopy. Upon surfactant addition, the disassembly is initiated at the
surface of the wires by the release of nanoparticles and by the swelling of the
structure. In a second step, erosion involving larger pieces takes over and
culminates in the complete dissolution of the wires, confirming the hypothesis
of a surface-type swelling and erosion process.

7
The categories of this paper are: hep-th
19
The categories of this paper are: eess
9
The categories of this paper are: nlin
22
The categories of this paper are: chao-dyn
33
The categories of this paper are: plasm-ph
18
The categories of this paper are: econ
25
The categories of this paper are: patt-sol
16
The categories of this paper are: stat
12
The categories of this paper are: nucl-th
1
The categories of this paper are: cs
26
The categories of this paper are: bayes-an
21
The categories of this paper are: adap-org
5
The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
34
The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
14
The categories of this paper are: math-ph
20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys