Phase changes in polyampholytes

Abstract
It is shown that polymers which carry positive and negative charges, but which are approximately neutral overall, show a phase charge from the extended random flight configuration to a condensed microphase. This condensed phase is a microelectrolyte satisfying a Debye-Huckel type of structure. Such structures are not totally collapsed and may be better subjects for study than the collapse of a single chain, which is a more violent phenomenon since it is only short range repulsions which give this phase any physical extent.