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Liquid‐crystalline ordering in solutions of polyelectrolytes
Author(s) -
Nyrkova Irina A.,
Shusharidezhda P.,
Khokhlov Alexei R.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
macromolecular theory and simulations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1521-3919
pISSN - 1022-1344
DOI - 10.1002/mats.1997.040060602
Subject(s) - polyelectrolyte , liquid crystal , chemical physics , phase transition , isotropy , phase (matter) , polymer , phase diagram , limiting , chemistry , macromolecule , materials science , condensed matter physics , thermodynamics , physics , optics , organic chemistry , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , engineering
The isotropic‐nematic phase transition in solutions of stiff‐chain polyelectrolytes is considered on the basis of the Onsager approach for the limiting cases of charged rods and persistent macrolecules. We plotted a full family of phase diagrams for orientational transitions in solutions of polyelectrolytes with any charge density as a function of the low‐molecular‐weight salt concentration. It is shown that charging of macromolecules can lead not only to the renormalization of the chain diameter (discussed by Onsager) or to the twisting effect (predicted by Odijk et al.), but in some cases also to a variety of other regimes, including transitions with very narrow phase separation regions, or with a second orientational transition to a highly oriented nematic phase upon the increase of polymer concentration.