FORMATION OF POLYELECTROLYTE MICELLE COMPLEXES

Polyelectrolytes may bind to oppositely charged micelles to form soluble complexes. The onset of complexation is known to obey an empirical rule connecting the surface charge densities of the polyion and the micelle with the ionic strength. We argue that this restricts severely the types of viable statistical theories of complexation. A scaling analysis rationalizes the empirical law and shows which dimensionless groups are unimportant at the onset of complexation.