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Water‐Soluble Stoichiometric Polyelectrolyte Complexes Based on Cationic Comb‐Type Copolymers
Author(s) -
Matralis Alexios,
Sotiropoulou Maria,
Bokias Georgios,
Staikos Georgios
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.200600083
Subject(s) - cationic polymerization , copolymer , polyelectrolyte , polymer chemistry , nanoparticle , radical polymerization , chemistry , ionic strength , polyacrylamide , dissociation (chemistry) , polymerization , chemical engineering , polymer , materials science , aqueous solution , organic chemistry , nanotechnology , engineering
Summary: The interaction between the cationic comb‐type copolymer poly(acrylamide‐ co ‐MAPTAC)‐ graft ‐polyacrylamide, synthesized by free‐radical polymerization, and the anionic homopolymer NaPA has been investigated. Water‐soluble PECs are formed through a charge neutralization process. They adopt a compact structure, and form nanoparticles consisting of a hydrophobic PEC core and a protective hydrophilic PAM corona. By increasing the composition of the graft copolymers in neutral PAM side chains, the aggregation number and the size of the nanoparticles decrease. Moreover, increasing the ionic strength of the solution favours the dissociation of the complexes.A schematic representation of the PEC nanoparticles formed at N NaPA = 0.5.