Abstract
The kinetic theory of rubber elasticity for polyelectrolytes has been modified by including an effect of the electrostatic persistence length. The relations for swelling equilibria as a function of the degree of neutralization in polyelectrolyte gels are derived. We find that the volume fraction of the polymer in the swollen gel does not decrease monotonically with increasing α, but instead exhibits a minimum near α ∼ 0.1. Beyond this value of α the extent of swelling decreases with increasing degree of neutralization. The theory has been verified by measurements of the swelling behaviour of weakly crosslinked polymethacrylic acid gels as a function of varying degree of neutralization.
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