Ma, Y.
, Ivancic, R.
, Obrzut, J.
, Audus, D.
and Prabhu, V.
(2024),
Effect of Cosolvents on the Phase Separation of Polyelectrolyte Complexes, Soft Matter, [online], https://doi.org/10.1039/d4sm00903g, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958275
(Accessed October 17, 2025)
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Effect of Cosolvents on the Phase Separation of Polyelectrolyte Complexes
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Author(s)
Yuanchi Ma, , , ,
Abstract
Evidence is shown that cosolvent mixtures control the coacervation of mixtures of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Binary and ternary solvent mixtures lead to non-monotonic solubility as a function of measured average dielectric constants of the solvent mixtures. These data are rationalized by considering both electrostatic-driven and solvophobic-driven phase separation using group contribution effects on solubility parameters. These estimates are introduced into an effective Flory-Huggins interaction parameter within the framework of Voorn-Overbeek theory with variable dielectric constant and temperature dependences. Despite its simplicity, the model recovers salient experimental observations not only on the coacervate stabilities, but also on their lower-critical solution temperature behaviors. These observations highlight the importance of the weak van der Waals interactions in determining the phase behaviors of polyelectrolyte complexes relative to the electrostatic correlations.Citation
Soft Matter
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Created September 13, 2024, Updated September 20, 2024