| 초록 |
Complex coacervates(CC) are polymer-rich phases of liquid-liquid phase separation when two oppositely charged polyelectrolyte are mixed in aqueous solutions. Previously, Voorn-Overbeek model(VO model), the first theoretical model describing the behavior of CC, combines the entropy of mixing and electrostatic interactions based on Flory-Huggins model. The VO model, however, neglects the chain connectivity of polyelectolytes and chemistry-specific details. In this study, 4 pairs of polyelectrolyte complex coacervates(e.g., strong/weak polyanion/polycation)were investigated to map the phase diagrams experimentally. We observed that the phase diagram shows distinctive features dependent on the pairs of polyelectrolytes, including negatively sloped tie line which cannot be expected by the VO model. We believe there are chemistry-related parameters which controls phase behavior, and this observations shed new light on the fascinating and biologically important topic of complex coacervation. |
