Heteropolymers, charged

Alvarez-Lorenzo, C. Hiratani, H. Tanaka, K. Standi, K. Grosberg, A.Y. Tanaka, T. Simultaneous multiple-point adsorption of aluminum ions and charged molecules by a polyampholyte thermosensitive gel controlling frustrations in a heteropolymer gel. Langmuir 2001, 17, 3616-3622. 

Polyelectrolytes contain monomers that are charged. They are virtually always heteropolymers as well, since only part of the monomers will have a charge. A polyelectrolyte may be a polyacid, a polybase, or a polyampholyte (acid and basic groups). 

Proteins are the most abundantly occurring natural polyampholytes. In addition to their amphoteric character, proteins are amphiphilic heteropolymers. The distribution of the monomers (the various amino acid residues) determines the amphiphi-licity and charge distribution and is therefore largely responsible for the 3D structure of a protein molecule in aqueous solution. Principles governing the protein structure and structural stability are treated in more detail in Chapter 13. 

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