Absorption of polyelectrolytes on colloidal surfaces as studied by electrophoretic and dynamic light-scattering techniques

zeta-Potential and the effective diameter of the colloidal spheres absorbed with the macro-cations and macro-anions are studied by the electrophoretic light-scattering and dynamic light-scattering measurements. Colloidal spheres used are monodispersed polystyrene (220 nm in diameter) and colloidal silica spheres (110 nm). Macro-ions used are sodium polyacrylate, sodium polymethylacrylate, sodium poly(styrene sulfonate), and poly-4-vinyl pyridines quaternized with ethyl bromide, n-butyl bromide, benzyl chloride, and 5% hexadecyl bromide and 95% benzyl chloride. Reversal of colloidal surface charges from negative to positive occurs abruptly above the critical concentration of macro-ions by the excess absorption of the macro-cations onto the anionic colloidal spheres, i.e., avalanche-type absorption. The effective diameter of colloidal spheres including the absorbed layers increases substantially by four- to tenfold. In the presence of large amount of macro-cations aggregation of colloidal spheres mediated by the layers of absorbed macro-cations may occur. Absorption also occurs on the anionic colloidal spheres in the presence of an excess amount of macro-anions by the dipole-dipole-type attractive interactions, (C) 1999 Academic Press.