Very weakly charged segmented polyelectrolytes. The effect of coulombic interactions on viscosity and neutron scattering

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Abstract
Very weakly charged (1 charge/100 Å) segmented polyelectrolytes have been synthesized and the effect of coulombic repulsion on the viscosity and neutron scattering of their aqueous solutions has been studied. A polyelectrolyte effect shows up in the viscosity at concentrations where the Debye screening length κ-1 becomes of the order of the root mean square distance between charged linkers. Neutron scattering experiments can be fitted to a theoretical segment-segment direct correlation function C (r ) which superimposes a classical short range excluded volume term v δ (r) and a screened coulombic repulsion 1 /r e- Kr. The hypothesis of a conformation consisting of aligned blobs at large screening length (low polymer concentration, no salt) seems compatible with the experiments