Thermoreversible crosslinking of polyelectrolyte chains.

Thermoreversible crosslinking of polyelectrolyte chains via short-range attractions such as hydrogen bonding induced by uncharged or charged particles is studied within the Flory model of ideal association. Electrostatic interactions between the charges at different linking fractions are taken into account by using a generalized random phase approximation approach which includes the network connectivity. We find that at certain concentration of linking agents an infinitely large polymer network is formed. We calculate the structural gelation lines for linkers of different charges and functionalities. (c) 2004 American Institute of Physics.