Amphiphile Adsorption on Rigid Polyelectrolytes

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantitative theory for the cooperative adsorption of cationic surfactants on anionic polyelectrolytes, highlighting how salt and monomer concentrations influence critical adsorption, with potential applications in gene delivery.

Contribution

It introduces a new theoretical model that predicts surfactant adsorption behavior on polyelectrolytes considering salt effects, aiding in the design of gene delivery systems.

Findings

Critical adsorption concentration is bilinear in salt and monomer concentrations.

Coefficients depend only on surfactant type.

Results can guide efficient gene delivery system design.

Abstract

A theory is presented which quantitatively accounts for the cooperative adsorption of cationic surfactants to anionic polyelectrolytes. For high salt concentration we find that the critical adsorption concentration (CAC) is a bilinear function of the polyion monomer and salt concentrations, with the coefficients dependent only on the type of surfactant used. The results presented in the paper might be useful for designing more efficient gene delivery systems.