Publication Date
2017
Journal or Book Title
Soft Matter
Abstract
Polyelectrolyte complexation has long been known to result in both liquid and solid complexes. However, the exact nature of the liquid-to-solid transition remains an open question. We have used rheology to explain this phenomenon for the model system of poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid, sodium salt) (PSS) and poly(diallyldimethyl ammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) in the presence of potassium bromide (KBr). The use of a time-salt superposition allows for a detailed analysis of changes in the linear viscoelastic response for both liquid complex coacervates and solid polyelectrolyte complexes as a function of salt concentration, and facilitates unambiguous determination of the mechanism for this phase transition. Decreasing salt concentration, and the commensurate decrease in the water content of PSS/PDADMAC/KBr complexes is shown to lead to the formation of a physical gel due to the development of a network with trapped electrostatic crosslinks that percolates the sample at a critical salt concentration.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM01285C
License
UMass Amherst Open Access Policy
Funder
Acknowledgment is made to the Donors of the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for support of this research.
Recommended Citation
Liu, Yalin; Momani, Brian; Winter, H. Henning; and Perry, Sarah L., "Rheological Characterization of Liquid-to-Solid Transitions in Bulk Polyelectrolyte Complexes" (2017). Soft Matter. 847.
https://doi.org/10.1039/C7SM01285C
Comments
This article can be cited before page numbers have been issued, to do this please use: Y. Liu, B. Momani, H. H. Winter and S. L. Perry, Soft Matter, 2017, DOI: 10.1039/C7SM01285C.