The adsorption of a synthetic heparinoid polyelectrolyte on poly (vinylchloride) previously treated with tridodecylmethylammonium chloride (TDMAC) was studied using radiotracer techniques to provide a more quantitative picture of antithrombogenic surface coatings. 125I-labeled polyelectrolyte was used for overall adsorption measurements. Experiments with 36Cl-labeled TDMAC yielded information o...

Complexation of a polyelectrolyte with an oppositely charged spherical macroion is studied for both salt free and salty solutions. When a polyelectrolyte winds around the macroion, its turns repel each other and form an almost equidistant solenoid. It is shown that this repulsive correlations of turns lead to the charge inversion: more polyelectrolyte winds around the macroion than it is necess...

We prcsent a study of the electrodynamic behavior of concentrated suspensions of spherical polyelectrolyte brushcs (SPBs). The dynamic mobility of the SPBs exhibits giant values. Concomitantly, . the dielectric spectra of suspensions of these particlcs display enormous loss peaks in the kHz frequency range. The strong dielectric relaxation is a direct consequence of the inhomogeneity of the cou...

A brief review is given on recent studies of charged soft matter solutions, as modelled by the ‘primitive’ approach of strongly coupled Coulomb systems, where the solvent just enters as a dielectric background. These include charged colloids, biological macromolecules such as proteins and DNA, polyelectrolytes and polyelectrolyte stars. Also some original results are presented on colloid–polyel...

Problem statement: The aim of this study was that of studying the rheology of sewage sludge using two different rheological test protocols taken from literature and comparing them in order to evaluate which useful information are given from every protocol. Approach: Two different protocols have been used taking particularly into account the problems connected to sludge heterogeneous composition...

Biomaterials based on polyelectrolyte complexation are an innovative concept of coatings and packaging production to be applied in a wide range of food products. The aim of this study was to obtain and characterize a sodium alginate–chitosan complex material with variable degree of polyion interactions by complexation of oppositely charged polysaccharides. In order to characterize polyelectroly...

The potential of cationic polyelectrolytes to precipitate host cell and process related impurities was investigated, to replace one or more chromatography steps in monoclonal antibody purification. The impact of antibody isoelectric point, solution properties (pH and ionic strength), and polyelectrolyte properties (structure, molecular weight and pK(a)) on the degree of precipitation was studie...

Using molecular dynamics simulations in combination with scaling analysis, we have studied the effects of the solvent quality and the strength of the electrostatic interactions on the conformations of spherical polyelectrolyte brushes in salt-free solutions. The spherical polyelectrolyte brush could be in one of four conformations: (1) a star-like conformation, (2) a "star of bundles" conformat...

Layer-by-layer self-assembled polyelectrolyte shells are a new class of micro/nanocapsules with unique physicochemical properties for potential applications in drug/gene delivery. The objective of this study was to investigate the interactions of polyelectrolyte shells ( approximately 1 mum in diameter) with MCF-7 breast cancer cells and identify key parameters that affect such interactions. Ta...