Characterization of water-soluble,cationic polyelectrolytes as exemplified by poly(acrylamide-co-trimethylammoniumethylethacryate chloride) and the establishment of structure-property relationships

The cationic copolymerization products of poly (acrylamide-co-trimethylammoniumethylmethacrylate chloride (PTMAC) having cationic monomer percentages of 8%, 25%, and 50% as well as the cationic homopolymer, were characterized with respect to their molecular dimensions. The light-scattering and viscometric measurements were carried out for molecular weights ranging from 200 000 to 12 800 000 g/mol in 1 M NaCl solution at 25°C. It was possible to establish a relationship between the molecular weight and the two parameters: intrinsic viscosity and radius of gyration, for all four polymers.Rheological investigations of the flow properties in 1 M NaCl solution were also carried out using the polymer with a cationic monomer of 50% (PTMAC 50). Structure-property relationships were formulated which made it possible to describe and predict the shear viscosity, both in the zero-shear region (Newtonian region) and in the shear-dependent region (non-Newtonian region) as a function of the polymer concentration, the molecular weight, and shear rate.Abbreviations a exponent of the ]-M relationship - A ₂ 2^nd virial coefficient/mol·cm³·g^–2 - AAm acrylamide - b slope of the flow-curve in the shear-rate dependent region - c concentration/g·cm^–3 - dn/dc refractive index increment/cm³·g^–1 - f function - K constant of the ]-M relationship/cm³·g^t-1 - m _c proportion of cationic monomers/mol % - M molecular weight/g·mol^–1 - M _w weight-average molecular weight/g·mol^–1 - M _n number-average molecular weight/g·mol^–1 - NaCL sodium chloride - PAAm polyacrylamide - PS polystyrene - PTMAC poly(acrylamide-co-trimethylammoniumethylme thacrylate chloride) - R_G ^20.5 radius of gyration/nm - TMAC trimethylammoniumethylmethacrylate chloride - shear rate/s^–1 - critical shear rate/s^–1 - viscosity/Pa·s - 0 zero-shear viscosity/Pa·s - _s solvent viscosity/Pa·s - _sp specific viscosity - ] intrinsic viscosity/cm³·g^–1 - relaxation time/s