Scaling in Polyelectrolyte Solutions

Dilute Theta solvent case. The lecture will start from description of the scaling theory of a single polyelectrolyte chain in a theta solvent for polymer backbone. The idea of electrostatic blob will be introduced and the conformation of an isolated polylectrolyte chain in dilute solution with no added salt will be described. If time permits – the idea of counterion condensation and its effect on chain size and conformations will also be introduced. The electrostatic persistence length controversy will be briefly mentioned and the resulting effect of added salt on the size of a polyelectrolyte chain in dilute solution will be summarized.

Dilute poor solvent case. Scaling description of the cascade of necklace transitions of polyelectrolytes in dilute solution of poor solvent for polymer backbone will be presented.

Semidilute polyelectrolyte solutions. Scaling estimate of the overlap concentration will be given and the idea of the correlation length in semidilute solutions will be explained. Concentration dependence of correlation length for polyelectrolytes with hydrophilic and with hydrophobic backbones will be outlined. The number of important length scales will be emphasized.