Polyelectrolytes and their Applications

Polyelectrolytes and their Applications is the second volume in the series 'Charged and Reactive Polymers'. The important areas of polyelectrolyte applications, i.e., biomedicine, water purification, petroleum recovery and drag reduction, are pre sented along with discussions of the fundamental principles of polyelectrolyte chem istry and physics. This book should be of interest to scientists such as physicians, biochemists, polymer chemists and chemical engineers involved in applications of these materials. The first part of the book is devoted to the basic properties of polyelectrolytes in general, namely to the factors influencing the chain conformation of charged polymers in solution and to their counterion selectivity. It also contains methods of synthesis and new concepts of charge stabilized polymer colloids and of polyelectrolyte ca talysis. The second part describes recent information on the properties and biological effects of already well-known natural polyelectrolytes such as heparin and DNA and recently developed polymers such as pyran and polyionenes. The effects of poly anions and polycations on normal and transformed cells as well as on acetylcholine receptors follow. This part is of particular interest to scientists involved in biological research.

Inhalt
I / General Properties and Synthesis.- Hypercoiling in Hydrophobic Polyacids.- Compact Conformation of Polyions Stabilized by Non-Electrostatic Short-Range Interactions.- Ionic Selectivity of Polyelectrolytes in Salt Free Solutions.- Preparation and Characterization of Charge-Stabilized Polymer Colloids.- Polyelectrolyte 'Catalysis' in Ionic Reactions.- Mechanistic Considerations of Cyclocopolymerization and Some Properties of 'Pyran' Copolymer.- Zwitterion Silane-Modified Polymer Latexes.- II / Biomedicine.- The Role of Molecular Weight in Pharmacologic and Biologic Activity of Synthetic Polyanions.- Heparin and Related Polyelectrolytes.- Effects of Ionenes on Normal and Transformed Cells.- Interactions of Polyammonium Compounds with Isolated Acetylcholine Receptors.- Biomedical Applications of Polycations.- DNA as a Polyelectrolyte: Recent Investigations on the Na-DNA System.- Some Recent Studies of DNA in Aqueous Solution: Interactions with Certain Dyes and Antibiotics.- III / Water Purification Petroleum Recovery and Drag Reduction.- Ion Exchange Hollow Fibers.- Recent Studies on Grafting Polyelectrolytes to Membranes for Reverse Osmosis.- On the Pickup of Hydrochloric and Sulfuric Acids on a Polyamine Resin.- Some Observations on Drag Reduction in Polyacrylic Acid Solutions.- Some Aspects of Polymer Retention in Porous Media Using a C14 Tagged Polyacrylamide.