The Effect of Molar Mass and Charge Density on the Formation of Complexes between Oppositely Charged Polyelectrolytes

The interactions between model polyanions and polycations have been studied using frontal continuous capillary electrophoresis (FACCE) which allows the determination of binding stoichiometry and binding constant of the formed polyelectrolyte complex (PEC). In this work, the effect of the poly(l-lysine) (PLL) molar mass on the interaction with statistical copolymers of acrylamide and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonate (PAMAMPS) has been systematically investigated for different PAMAMPS chemical charge densities (15% and 100%) and different ionic strengths. The study of the ionic strength dependence of the binding constant allowed the determination of the total number of released counter-ions during the formation of the PEC, which can be compared to the total number of counter-ions initially condensed on the individual polyelectrolyte partners before the association. Interestingly, this fraction of released counter-ions, which was strongly dependent on the PLL molar mass, was almost independent of the PAMAMPS charge density. These findings are useful to predict the binding constant according to the molar mass and charge density of the polyelectrolyte partners.