Polymer-surfactant interactions: their cooperativity and stoichiometry

Surfactant bindings with solvated and crosslinked polyelectrolytes having charges on the side chain as well as chain backbone have been studied using various kinds of oppositely charged surfactants. We have found that there are three categories of the surfactant binding: they are cooperative and stoichiometric, non-cooperative and stoichiometric and cooperative and non-stoichiometric. The modes of these categories are predominantly determined by the steric chemical structure of the surfactant, hydrophobicity and the charge densities of the polyelectrolytes. Process and mechanism of the surfactant binding have been discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.