Premium
On the “filterable aggregates and other particles” interpretation of the extraordinary regime of polyelectrolytes
Author(s) -
Schmitz Kenneth S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.360330611
Subject(s) - polyelectrolyte , chemistry , interpretation (philosophy) , chemical physics , polymer science , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , polymer , organic chemistry , materials science , programming language , computer science , engineering
Quasi‐elastic light scattering studies on some polyelectrolyte systems exhibit a somewhat “bizarre” behavior in the profile of the apparent diffusion coefficient D app as a function of the salt concentration C s . As C s is decreased, D app first increases in accordance with polyelectrolyte theories, and then undergoes a precipitous drop in value by over an order of magnitude at a well‐defined critical value C s = C s o‐e . This “transition” from C s > C o‐e s(ordinary) to C s < C o‐e s(extraordinary) is referred to as the “ordinary‐extraordinary” (o‐e) transition. Ghosh, Peitzsch, and Reed [(1992) Biopolymers , Vol. 32, pp. 1105–1122] proposed a “filterable aggregate” (FA) and “other particle” interpretation for the o‐e transition and its reversibility in regard to ionic strength changes. The present communication examines in detail the FA model as applied to the o‐e transition. It is shown that the FA model fails to account of the established characteristics of the o‐e transition. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.