Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
sym
Symmetrical convention
w
Water
(
w
+
s
)
In an aqueous solution of the salt
(
w
+
s
+
p
)
In an aqueous solution of (salt + polyelectrolyte)
X
Ion
X
Superscripts
(
c
)
On molarity scale
Comb.
Combinatorial
E
Excess
el
Contribution from electrostatics
fv
Free volume
id.mix.
Ideal mixture
(
k
)
Characterizes the concentration scale
LR
Long-range
(
m
)
On molality scale
ref
Reference state
SLE
Solid liquid equilibrium
SR
Short-range
vdW
Van der Waals
(
x
)
On mole fraction scale
1
Infinite dilution
D
conf
Caused by a difference in the configuration (in model of Lammertz et al.)
1
Introduction
Polyelectrolytes are polymers of a single repeating unit (monomer) that is an
electrolyte or of several repeating units (monomers), where at least one of the
repeating units is an electrolyte. That electrolyte can dissociate in water and in
aqueous solutions resulting in negative or positive charges on the polymer back-
bone. Polyelectrolytes are very soluble in water, particularly when, in addition to
the ionic monomers, the other monomers are also hydrophilic. The large variety of
monomers means that there is a huge variety of polyelectrolytes. The number of
different repeating units and the number of each of those repeating units deter-
mines the primary structure of a polyelectrolyte, i.e., the chemical nature and the
molecular mass. However, that information is not sufficient to characterize a
polyelectrolyte. As typical of polymers, polyelectrolyte samples reveal a molecu-
lar mass distribution (polydispersity). Furthermore, when a polymer consists of
