Relaxation of adsorbed layer thickness and electrophoresis of polystyrene latex particles after overshooting of polyelectrolytes with different charge density

Abstract

Temporal change of hydrodynamic layer thickness (δH) and electrophoretic mobility (EPM) of polystyrene sulfate latex (PSL) particles adsorbed by oppositely charged polyelectrolytes were monitored herein to clarify the relaxation behavior after overshooting. Two linear polyelectrolytes with nominal molecular weight of 5 million differing in chain charge density, σ = 100 % (PTMA5M) and σ = 4 % (PTMC5M), and PSL particles of different diameters were used in the experiment. With the former polyelectrolyte, a remarkably thick layer that is formed at the incubation decays with the time scale of several tens of minutes and the EPM remains constant. The value of δH decreases with the increase of particle size, whereas with the latter polyelectrolyte, the initial value of δH is several times smaller than that of the former. There is a case wherein the EPM decreases with time, although δH remains constant. The initial δH is independent of the particle size. Ascribing the reason for the relaxation phenomena to desorption of overshot polyelectrolytes attached with meta-stable conformation in the initial stage, we have obtained an approximate picture of the conformational change for the chain of different charge density.