STATIC SCATTERING FROM MULTICOMPONENT POLYELECTROLYTE SOLUTIONS

The theory developed originally by Benoit to study the static scatteri ng properties of multicomponent neutral polymer mixtures is extended h ere to polyelectrolytes mixtures. Applications of this formalism to ca ses of practical interest are presented. The case of a ternary mixture made of a polyelectrolyte, a neutral polymer and a solvent is conside red. The effects of the neutral polymer on the scattering peak of the polyelectrolyte are discussed. This formalism is also used to analyze the recent neutron scattering data from mixtures of polystyrenesulfona te and tetramethylammonium in aqueous solutions reported by Van der Ma arel et al. A good agreement between the data and the theoretical pred ictions is obtained for the polyion-polyion structure factor in the wh ole range of the wavevectors covered in these experiments.