Conformation and order in polyelectrolyte solutions

Abstract

The scattering factor of polyelectrolyte solutions in the absence of added salt presents a peak at a scattering vector qm which varies like C 1/2. This has been sometimes interpreted in terms of a local orientational order of cylinders. The variation holds however through many concentration regimes, and other explanations in term of correlation holes have been proposed. We evaluate the different models together with the other possible evidences for the lack of orientational order. Anisotropic light scattering, electric birefringence relaxation and the magnitude of magnetic birefringence show no evidence for orientational order between single chain conformation