SANS from Salt-Free Aqueous Solutions of Hydrophilic and Highly Charged Star-Branched Polyelectrolytes.

ABSTRACT: Scattering functions of sodium sulfonated polystyrene (NaPSS) star-branched polyelectrolytes with high sulfonation degrees were measured from their salt-free aqueous solutions, using the Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) technique. Whatever the concentration c, they display two maxima. The first, of abscissa q₁*, is related to a position order between star cores and scales as q₁* ∝ c1/3. The second, of abscissa q₂*, is also observed in the scattering function of a semi-dilute solution of NaPSS linear polyelectrolytes. In the dilute regime (c < c*, non-overlapping stars), peak abscissa does not depend on concentration c and is just an intramolecular characteristic associated with the electrostatic repulsion between arms of the same star. In the semi-dilute regime, due to the star interp

SUBMITTER: Boue F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6431935 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature