Structures of some surfactant-polyelectrolyte complexes

Abstract

Structures of complexes formed in aqueous solutions by some anionic polyelectrolytes (double and single stranded (ds and ss) DNA, poly(vinyl sulfonate) (PVS), and poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS)) with a cationic surfactant system consisting of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium 3-hydroxy-2-naphthoate (SHN) have been determined using small angle Xray diffraction. All complexes are found to have a two-dimensional (2-D) hexagonal structure at low SHN concentrations. Analysis of the diffraction data shows that the ds DNA–CTAB complex has an intercalated structure, with each DNA strand surrounded by three cylindrical micelles. On increasing SHN concentration, DNA–CTAB–SHN complexes exhibit a hexagonal-to-lamellar transition, whereas PVS complexes show a hexagonal!centered rectangular!lamellar transition. PSS complexes show yet another sequence of structures. These results indicate the significant influence of the chemical nature of the polyelectrolyte on the structure of the complexes.