Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST) Behavior in Polyelectrolyte Complex Coacervates

Published

September 9, 2019

Author(s)

Vivek M. Prabhu, Murugappan Muthukumar, Sabin Adhikari

Abstract

In light of recent experimental observations of a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in polyelectrolyte complex coacervates (S. Ali, M. Bleuel, and V. M. Prabhu, ACS Macro Lett., 8,289, (2019)), we explore its possible mechanisms on the basis of a slight modification of our theory (S. Adhikari, M. A. Leaf, and M. Muthukumar, J. Chem. Phys 149, 163308 (2018)). We explore the consequences of the temperature dependence of the solvent dielectric constant (epsilon) and the solvent{polymer interaction parameter (chi) on the complex coacervates phase behavior. The results show that the temperature dependence of solvent dielectric constant and solvent{polymer interaction parameter can result in a complex phase behavior involving two disjoint unstable regions on temperature (T){polyelectrolyte concentration (Cp) plane. Comparison of phase diagrams constructed for different possible temperature dependencies of epsilon and chi show that the experimentally observed LCST behavior is obtained only if the solvent dielectric constant decreases and the solvent{polymer interaction parameter increases with increasing temperature. Preferential partitioning of salt into the polyelectrolyte poor phase is predicted for all possible combinations of temperature dependencies of epsilon and chi considered in this work.

Citation

Macromolecules

Volume

52

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

polyelectrolyte, theory, phase diagram

Citation

Prabhu, V. , Muthukumar, M. and Adhikari, S. (2019), Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST) Behavior in Polyelectrolyte Complex Coacervates, Macromolecules, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.9b01201 (Accessed October 15, 2025)