Self-assembly of polyelectrolyte rods in polymer gel and in solution : small-angle neutron scattering study

Zaroslov, Y. D.; Islamov, A. H.; Khokhlov, M. V.; Gordeliy, V. I.; Philippova, W. F.; Kuklin, A. N.; Wegner, G.

doi:10.1021/ma0120207

Journal Article

Self-assembly of polyelectrolyte rods in polymer gel and in solution : small-angle neutron scattering study

Zaroslov, Y. D. ; Gordeliy, V. I.FZJ* ; Kuklin, A. N. ; Islamov, A. H. ; Philippova, W. F. ; Khokhlov, M. V. ; Wegner, G.

2002
Soc. Washington, DC

Macromolecules 35, 4466 - 4471 (2002) [10.1021/ma0120207]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/717 doi:10.1021/ma0120207

Abstract: Self-aggregation of rigid-rod poly(sodium p-phenylenesulfonate) in aqueous solution and inside water-swollen polyacrylamide gel was studied by small-angle neutron scattering. It was shown that both inside the hydrogel and in solution polyelectrolyte rods self-assemble into cylindrical aggregates having eight to nine single polymer chains in the cross-section, the chains being aligned parallel to the axis of the aggregate. The length of these aggregates is much higher than the contour length of a single chain. Gels with embedded rods were studied by contrast variation method in order to examine separately the scattering by the gel and by the rods. Two important observations were made. First, it was shown that the ordering of the rods in the gel resembles that in solution. Second, it was shown that the gel itself is more homogeneous in the presence of rods. Most probably, this effect is due to mobile counterions of rods, which counteract the formation of spatial inhomogeneities in the network during synthesis, because in an inhomogeneous network mobile counterions should be also distributed nonuniformly that is associated with significant translational entropy losses.

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