• Korean Membrane Journal
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.39-45
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• 2008

Polyelectrolyte complex based on two anionic polysaccharides, composed of sodium alginate and carrageenan, were prepared by interacting with divalent calcium ions in solution. The effects of annealing on the structural deformation of polyelectrolyte complex and on their characteristics at removing water from a methanol mixture from the point of molecular sieve were investigated and discussed. The result showed that the structural deformation of the annealed polyelectrolyte complex has an effect on the free volume between these polymer chains and the chelate segments such a shrinking of the overall morphology, which act as a molecular sieve in the separation of methanol and water mixtures.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.26-33
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• 2000

A series of pH/temperature sensitive polymers were synthesized by copolymerizing N-isopro-pyl acrylamide(NIPAAm) and acrylic acid(AAc) . The influence of polyelectrolyte between poly(allyl amine) (PAA) and poly(L-lysine)(PLL) on the lower critical solution temperature(LCST) of pH/temperature sensitive polymer was compared in the range of pH 2∼12. The LCST of PNIPAAm/water in aqueous poly(NIPAAm-co-AAc) solution was determined by cloud point measurements. A polyelectrolyte complex was prepared by mixing poly(NIPAAm-co-AAc) with poly(allyl amine) (PAA) or poly(L-lysine) (PLL) solutions as anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes, respectively. The effect of polyelectrolyte complex formation on the conformation of PLL was studied as a function of temperature by means of circular dichroism(CD). The cloud points of PNIPAAm in the aqueous copolymers solutions were stongly affected by pH, the presence of polyelectrolyte solute, AAc content, and charge density. The polyelectrolyte complex was formed at neutral condition. The influence of more hydrophobic PLL as a polyelectrolyte on the cloud point of PNIPAAm in the aqueous copolymer solution was stronger than that of poly(allyl amine)(PAA). Although polymer-polymer complex was formed between poly(NIPAAm-co-AAc) and PLL, the conformational change of PLL did not occur due to steric hinderance of bulky N-isopropyl groups of PNIPAAm.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제10권6호
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• pp.297-303
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• 2002

We have investigated the microstructural properties of a weakly charged polyelectrolyte modeled with both Hookean spring and Debye-Huckel potential, by employing a novel hybrid scheme of molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. Although the off-lattice pivot step facilitates the earlier computations stage, it gives rise to oscillations and hinders the stable equilibrium state. In order to overcome this problem, we adopt the MC off-lattice pivot step in early stage only, and then switch the computation to a pure MD step. The result shows that the computational speed-up compared to the previous method is entirely above 10 to 50, without loss of the accuracy. We examined the conformations of polyelectrolyte in solvents in terms of the end-to-end distance, radius of gyration, and structure factor with variations of the screening effects of solvent and the monomer charges. The emphasis can favorably be given on the elongation behavior of a polyelectrolyte chain, with observing the simultaneous snapshots.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제16권4호
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• pp.308-313
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• 2008

A simple strategy was developed based on polyelectrolyte/silver nanocomposite to obtain humidity-sensitive membranes. The major component of a humid membrane is the polyTEAMPS/silver nanocomposite obtained by thermal heating the mixture of a polyelectrolyte and silver isopropylcarbamate complex. Humidity sensors prepared from polyTEAMPS/silver (w/w=100/0 and 100/6) nanocomposites had an average impedance of 292, 8.83 and $0.86\;k{\Omega}$, and 5,327, 140 and $0.93\;k{\Omega}$ at 30,60 and 95% relative humidity (RH), respectively. Hysteresis, temperature dependence and response time were also measured. Activation energies and complex impedance spectroscopy of the various components of the polyelectrolyte/silver nanocomposite films were examined for the humidity-sensing membrane.

• Macromolecular Research
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.267-271
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• 2006

Polyelectrolyte complex films were prepared with two compounds, chitosan and poly(ethylene glycol)-monosuccinate, using a casting in order to synthesize a polyelectrolyte complex film with various mole ratios of chitosan and poly(ethylene glycol)-monosuccinate. The solution properties of isolated PEC were investigated for the effects of FTIR, pH value, Brookfield viscosity and cell viability assay using MTT staining. The PEC films were evaluated for mechanical properties by typical stress-strain curve, far thermal properties by DSC and TGA and for surface morphology Properties by SEM. Furthermore, the surface resistance, moisture regain and water content of the films were characterized. The solution properties were affected by several factors including the chitosan content in the PEC, the mixing ratio of PEG and chitosan, and pH. Several PEC in acidic conditions exhibited film formation under appropriate conditions of mixing ratio and chitosan concentration in the mixing process. These PEC films were found to have sufficiently flexible and stable properties due to their hydrophilic structure, which was farmed by the oppositely charged interaction between PEG-MS and chitosan matrix. The results showed the potential applicability of chitosan and poly(ethylene glycol)-monosuccinate films as a biocompatible polymer.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• 제41권2호
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• pp.95-102
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• 2011

An amphiphilic cationic branched methoxy poly (ethylene glycol)-branched polyethylenimine - poly(L-phenylalanine) (mPEG-bPEI-pPhe) block copolymer was successfully synthesized by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of N-carboxyanhydride of L-phenylalanine (Phe-NCA) with mPEG-bPEI for the preparation of more stable polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) included a hydrophobic interaction. mPEG-bPEI was firstly prepared by the coupling of mPEG and bPEI using hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI). The structural properties of mPEG-bPEI-pPhe copolymers were confirmed by $^1H$ NMR. The copolymers exhibited a self-assemble behavior in water above critical aggregate concentration (CAC) in the range of 0.01-0.14 g/L. The CAC of copolymers obviously depended on the hydrophobic block content in the copolymers (the value decreased with the increase of the pPhe block content). The cationic copolymers have the ability to form multi-interaction complex (MIC) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and plasmid DNA through multi-interaction (electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction). The physicochemical characterization of the complex was carried out by the measurement of zeta potential and particle size. Their zeta-potentials were positive (approximately +10 mV) and their sizes decreased with increasing pPhe contents in the copolymers (PPF/BSA wt% ratio = 2). The complex showed good stability at high ionic strength. Therefore, mPEG-bPEI-pPhe block copolymer was considered as a potential material to enhance the stability of complex including biotherapuetic drugs.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.179-183
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• 2004

A biocompatible polyelectrolyte complex multilayer (PECML) film consisting of poly-L-lysine (PLL) as a polycation and hyaluronic acid (HA) as a polyanion was developed to test its use for surface modification to prevent cell attachment and protein drug delivery. The formation of PECML through the electrostatic interaction of HA and PLL was confirmed by contact angle measurement, ESCA analysis, and HA content analysis. HA content increased rapidly up to 8 cycles for HA/PLL deposition and then slightly increased with an increasing number of deposition cycle. In vitro release of PLL in the PECML continued up to 4 days and ca. 25% of HA remained on the chitosan-coated cover glass after in vitro release test for 7 days. From the results, PECML of HA and PLL appeared to be stable for about 4 days. The surface modification of the chitosan-coated cover glass with PECML resulted in drastically reduced peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) attachment. Concerned with its use for protein drug delivery, we confirmed that bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein could be incorporated into the PECML and its release might be triggered by the degradation of HA with hyaluronidase.

• 약학회지
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• 제33권6호
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• pp.324-332
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• 1989

Drug release from sulfanilamide granules coated with a polyelectrlyte complex of sodium tripolyphosphate and chitosan was studied. The coating film thickness increased with increasing concentration of chitosan in the coating solution and the drug release rates of the coated granules were significantly reduced comparing with those of the uncoated granules. $T_{50%}$ of the uncoated granules was 6 minutes, but those of the granules coated with chitosan-sodium tripolyphosphate from 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9% (w/v) chitosan-HCl solution were 27, 135, and 180 minutes, respectively in distilled water. In dissolution medium at pH 6.8, $T_{50%}$ of the uncoated granules was 4 minutes, but those of the granules coated with chitosan-sodium tripolyphosphate from 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9(w/v)% chitosan-HCl solution, were 32, 135, and 160 minutes, respectively.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.51-59
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• 2007

A polyelectrolyte chain confined in a slit nanochannel exhibits a structural transition from the one in free space. In this paper, the effect of the long-range electrostatic interactions between the xanthan polyelectrolyte and the slit wall on the confined xanthan conformation is investigated via the Brownian dynamics simulation. A neutral and two negatively charged surfaces of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and glass are combined to make four kinds of slit channels with different charge characteristics: i) neutral-neutral, ii) glass-glass, iii) neutral-PDMS and iv) neutral-glass walls. Their walls are characterized by uniform surface charge densities determined from experimental data of zeta potential. Both the nonmonotonic chain size variation and the loss of long-range bond vector correlation, previously observed under confinement in the PDMS-PDMS slit, are also found in the neutral slit, demonstrating the nonelectrostatic origin of such crossover behaviors. As expected, the effect of wall charges is negligible at sufficiently high medium ionic strength of 100mM but it becomes significant in the opposite limit of 0.01mM. In the latter case, the high charge density of glass walls strengthens the effective confinement of a negatively charged polyelectrolyte and produces a xanthan structure comparable to that confined in a much narrower neutral slit. The obtained structural data suggest the possibility of controlling the structure of confined polyelectrolytes by the modification of surface charge characteristics of micro/nanofluidic devices in combination with the adjustment of the medium ionic strength.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제34권12호
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• pp.3703-3708
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• 2013

The scaling relationship of the longest relaxation time of a single chain of semiflexible biological polyelectrolyte has been investigated by performing well-established coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations. Two kinds of longest relaxation times were estimated from time-sequences of chain trajectories, and their behaviors were interpreted by applying the scaling law for different molecular weights of polyelectrolyte and Debye lengths. The scaling exponents for longest stress relaxation and rotational relaxation are found in the ranges of 1.67-1.79 and 1.65-1.81, respectively, depending on the physicochemical interaction of electrostatic Debye screening. The scaling exponent increases with decreasing screening effect, which is a special feature of polyelectrolytes differing from neutral polymers. It revealed that the weak screening allows a polyelectrolyte chain to follow the behavior in good solvent due to the strong electrostatic repulsion between beads.