On the scattering properties of a weakly charged polymer gel

A phenomenological model is presented to describe weakly charged polymer gels based on the classical elasticity theory. The structure factor of the gel is calculated considering both thermal and frozen concentration fluctuations as well as the screened Coulomb interaction. In agreement with the recent experimental finding the result shows anomalous crosslink-density dependence of the scattering profiles. Received: 28 March 1997 / Revised: 4 September 1997 / Accepted: 23 October 1997