COMPARISON OF ELECTRICAL TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF ANIONIC POLYELECTROLYTES AND POLYSOAPS

Two polysoap and three polyelectrolyte samples, prepared by the hydrolysis of copolymers of maleic anhydride with decyl vinyl ether and methyl vinyl ether, respectively, were compared by electrical transport studies at 0°. Conductometric titrations in aqueous saltless solutions gave the following results: (1) the equivalent conductance was smaller for the polysoap than for the polyelectrolyte samples and (2) while the equivalent conductance was independent of the degree of polymerization for the polyelectrolytes, it decreased with increasing degree of polymerization for the polysoaps. In 0.2 N LiBr solution, the polysoap conductance was again smaller than that of the polyelectrolytes. On the other hand, the electrophoretic mobility was identical for polysoaps and polyelectrolytes at each given LiBr concentration of the aqueous solvent medium and decreased as the LiBr normality increased from 0.04 to 0.8. The same invariance of the electrophoretic mobility to large changes in macroion configuration had previously been observed for cationic polyelectrolytes and polysoaps and thus appears to be a general phenomenon.