Polyelectrolyte polyanion

Polyelectrolytes (polyanions or polycations) are an important class of functionalized polymers with charged groups attached to the chains [9-13]. The physicochemical behavior of these polymers is dominated by the attractive interactions between the fixed charges and counterions, and by the long-range repulsive interactions between the electric charges located on the macromolecular chains [63]. Electrostatic interactions between polymers and metal ions are found in many important biopolymers and... 

Due to the presence of both negative and positive charges in the platelike crystal interactions with polyelectrolytes, polyanions as well as polycations, via electrostatic forces, can be utilized to control the colloidal stability (or instability) as well as the rheological behavior of the whole system. 

High sorption capacities with respect to protein macromolecules are observed when highly permeable macro- and heteroreticular polyelectrolytes (biosorbents) are used. In buffer solutions a typical picture of interaction between ions with opposite charges fixed on CP and counterions in solution is observed. As shown in Fig. 13, in the acid range proteins are not bonded by carboxylic CP because the ionization of their ionogenic groups is suppressed. The amount of bound protein decreases at high pH values of the solution because dipolar ions proteins are transformed into polyanions and electrostatic repulsion is operative. The sorption maximum is either near the isoelectric point of the protein or depends on the ratio of the pi of the protein to the pKa=0 5 of the carboxylic polyelectrolyte [63]. It should be noted that this picture may be profoundly affected by the mechanism of interaction between CP and dipolar ions similar to that describedby Eq. (3.7). 

A similar example is the formation of nonstoichiometric interpolymeric complexes between mutually complementary polyelectrolytes — polycation and polyanion [69,70], They behave like true polymer networks and are capable of swelling the interpolymeric complexes between PAAc and polyethylene piperazine swells, for instance, 16-18 times [70], Also advantageous in this case is the possibility to carry out this type of crosslinking in open systems, such as soil. 

For the preparation of spray-dried polyelectrolyte complexes, the polyanion was dissolved in dilute NH4HCO3 solution and mixed with the chitosan carbamate solution just before spray-drying. The excess NH4HCO3 decomposed thermally between 60 and 107 °C on the other hand, the carbamate function released carbon dioxide under the effect of the temperature at which the spray-drier was operated, thus regenerating chitosan at the moment of the polyelectrolyte microsphere formation (Fig. 5). 

Solutions of polyelectrolytes contain polyions and the free (individual) counterions. The dissociation of a polyacid or its salt yields polyanions, and that of a polybase or its salt yields polycations, in addition to the simple counterions. The polyampholytes are amphoteric their dissociation yields polyions that have anionic and cationic functions in the same ion and often are called zwitterions (as in the case of amino acids having HjN and COO groups in the same molecule). Such an amphoter will behave as a base toward a stronger acid and as an acid toward a stronger base its solution properties (particularly its effective charge) will be pH dependent, and an isoelectric point (pH value) exists where anionic and cationic dissociation is balanced so that the polyion s charges add up to zero net charge (and solubility is minimal). 

Two extreme types of polyanions can be distinguished. In the first, the main chain is flexible and can assume a large number of different conformations so that the overall shape of the ion depends on the solvent. In some solvents (called bad ), they are rolled up to form a relatively rigid random coil , while in others ( good ) the coil is more or less expanded. This type includes most synthetic polyelectrolytes such as the following acids ... 

Poly(starch-g-((l-amidoethylene)-co-(sodium 1-carboxylatoethylene))). Poly(l-amidoethylene) is, however, rarely used as a viscosifier. Instead, the homopolyraer is reacted with base (hydrolyzed with NaOH) to convert some of the amide units of the polymer to carboxylic acid units. The acid units on the hydrolyzed polymer dissociate in water and produce a polyanionic polymer. This polyelectrolyte expands in water because of ion-ion repulsion and, as an enlarged molecule, is a better viscosifier. 

The evaluation of each individual polyelectrolyte and binary polyanion-polycation pairs has followed the protocol described in Fig. 1. 

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