Article,
Hydrophobic Polyelectrolytes
Macromolecules, 32 (3): 915--922 (1999)
Abstract
We present a scaling model of hydrophobic polyelectrolytes. In dilute
salt-free solutions these polymers have a necklacelike shape with
compact beads joined by narrow strings. This necklacelike structure
manifests itself in the unique scaling laws in semidilute regime
for the concentration range where the correlation length xi of a
solution is on the order of the string length between two neighboring
beads. In this regime the correlation length xi decreases with polymer
concentration c as xi similar to c(-1/3), viscosity is concentration
independent, and self-diffusion coefficient D increases with concentration
D similar to c(1/3) in both unentangled and entangled solutions.
The effects of added salt on the properties of hydrophobic polyelectrolyte
solutions are also discussed.
