J. Kotz et al., POLYELECTROLYTE COMPLEX-FORMATION IN LAMELLAR LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE SYSTEMS, Journal of colloid and interface science, 186(1), 1997, pp. 141-148
The influence of polyelectrolytes on structure formation in liquid cry
stalline Na-dodecylsulfate/decanol/water systems was investigated by m
eans of small angle X-ray diffraction, theology, NMR spectroscopy, and
microscopy. By adding Na-polyacrylate (PPA) into the mesophase, the o
ne-phase region is left and phenomena of phase separation into a solve
nt-rich and a polymer/surfactant-rich phase occurs. By incorporating a
n anionic and cationic polyelectrolyte step by step the tendency of ph
ase separation is increased drastically. The self-organization process
can be regulated directly by varying the water content of the system.
However, at a water content of 30% the properties of the resulting li
quid crystal were changed drastically. X-ray diffraction shows a multi
tude of Bragg peaks, NMR shows a peak-splitting, and theology shows a
change from non-Newtonian to Newtonian-flow behavior. On the basis of
the experimental results an ordered multilayer associate structure can
be assumed. (C) 1997 Academic Press