Experimental behavior of polysaccharides polyelectrolytes

Theoretical calculations based on molecular grounds are stdl extremely compUcated and incomplete and other routes must be more empirically used in order to interpret the experimental data and to understand the correlation between conformational properties and structure. The central problem is to quantify the interactions among charges on the polymer and among these same charges and their respective counterions. 

There at least two approaches that may be relevant for this review one is that described by Haug and Smidsrod for the rationalization of the dimensional properties of polyelectrolytes as a function of salt concentration, the other is the formulation of a statistical thermodynamic theory for the physical framing of the ion-polyelectrolyte interactions. Both these theoretical formulations deal with the conformation of the polymer and predict that the conformational features must be function of ionic strength (see for example refs. 75 and 76). 

2 The Haug and Smidsred parameter description of the sait effect on the chain dimension 

The range of theoretical and experimental approaches has been, in particular, addressed to the problem of conformational transitions between two different states, provided they have different charge densities. For thermally induced, conformational transitions be- 

This relation has been successflilly applied first to the transition processes of DNA, polynueleotides, but also to many ionic polysaccharides (carrageenans, xanthan, sueeinoglyean, ) of great industrial interest. Accurate determination of the T values of the polysaeeharide as a funetion of the ionic strength is neeessary. 

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