Ion behaviour in plant cell walls. III. Measurement of the mean charge separation distance and the linear charge density parameter in delignified Sphagnum russowii cell walls

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Abstract
According to the Manning consensation theory, the structure of cation-binding uronates in the cell wall influence ionic behavior. Assuming the theory is valid, we measured, in cation-binding experiments, the dimensionless linear charge density parameter and the mean charge separation distance in the fully ionized delignified Sphagnum russowii cell wall. Our charge separation estimate, 1.00 .+-. 0.02 nm, indicates that approximately 1.3 neutral sugars are interpolated between the uronic acids in the polyuronate chains of the cation exchanger. This compares well with chemical data of isolated wall fractions from another sphagnum species reported by other workers. The charge density parameter estimate, 0.71 .+-. 0.02, implies that univalent cations never condense, whereas cations with two or more positive charges condense when the degree of ionization of the fixed (wall) charges is high enough.

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