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Entanglement Properties of Polyelectrolytes in Salt-Free and Excess-Salt Solutions
journal contribution
posted on 2019-07-22, 15:08 authored by Carlos G. LopezWe study the entanglement properties
of polyelectrolytes in salt-free
and excess-salt solutions, corresponding to rod-like and expanded
coil conformations, respectively. While the solvent’s ionic
strength has a large impact on the conformation of polyelectrolytes,
it does not affect its entanglement density and entanglement crossover.
This contradicts current models of polymer entanglement and suggests
that the density of binary contacts in solution is not affected by
the solvent quality. Based on this observation, we work out the reptation
dynamics of polyelectrolytes in salt-free solution, which differ appreciably
from earlier models.