Scattering Study of the Structure of Polystyrene Sulfonate Comb Polyelectrolytes in Solution

The structures of a range of PSS combs in aqueous solutions were characterized using SLS, DLS, SANS and SAXS. Combined SLS and SANS data indicated that the comb polyelectrolytes adopted extended cylindrical structures in dilute solutions. The degree of extension of the side‐chains was analyzed by fitting the data with a novel cylindrical form factor using a variable number density of monomers. The results were in agreement with hydrodynamic radii from DLS measurements. Addition of salt to the samples caused a contraction of the cylindrical morphology, but the chains continued to adopt relatively extended conformations. In semi‐dilute solutions a universal behaviour, independent of the comb topology, was found for the screening length in SAXS measurements. magnified image