Abstract
Self-Consistent Mean-Field Calculations (SCF) have provided a semi-quantitative description of the physico-chemical behavior of six different polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures. The SCF calculations performed showed that both the formation of polymer-surfactant in bulk and the adsorption of the formed complexes onto negatively-charged surfaces are strongly affected by the specific nature of the considered systems, with the polymer-surfactant interactions playing a central role in the self-assembly of the complexes that, in turn, affects their adsorption onto interfaces and surfaces. This work evidences that SCF calculations are a valuable tool for deepening on the understanding of the complex physico-chemical behavior of polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures. However, it is worth noting that the framework obtained on the basis of an SCF approach considered an equilibrium situation which may, in some cases, be far from the real situation appearing in polyelectrolyte-surfactant systems.
Highlights
Mixtures formed by polyelectrolytes and surfactants have attracted the interest of many researchers during the last two decades [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Of polymer polymerchains chainstoto polyelectrolyte-surfactant (P-S)complexes complexesoccurs occurs as as result result of of the the binding binding of preformed surfactant micelles, i.e., the formed complexes may be considered as surfactant micelles preformed surfactant micelles, i.e., the formed complexes may be considered as surfactant micelles decorated with the hydrophobic hydrophobicgroups groupsofofthe the decorated with chains.,ititwas wasexpected expected that the surfactants would remain in the inner region(core)
This study showed that even though the real situation may not be a true equilibrium, Self-Consistent Mean-Field Calculations (SCF) calculations give a semi-quantitative prediction of the framework found in experimental studies dealing with the physico-chemical behavior of pseudo-binary polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures, both in the bulk and upon adsorption at the solid-liquid interface
Summary
Mixtures formed by polyelectrolytes and surfactants have attracted the interest of many researchers during the last two decades [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Despite the extensive development of studies involving polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures, there is an important lack of knowledge related to the relationships existing between the chemical nature and structure of the polyelectrolytes and surfactants and the complexation processes, as well as between the physico-chemical properties of such complexes and their adsorption at interfaces, with the understanding of the adsorption processes being essential in many of the applications of polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures [2,10,11] This is because many of such applications, including the performance of hair care and conditioning formulations, mineral flotation, or drug delivery, rely on the interaction between polyelectrolyte-surfactant complexes and negatively-charged surfaces [2,12,13]. It is worth mentioning that recent studies have suggested that the nature of the complexes may be related
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