Polyelectrolytes and Interpolyelectrolyte Complexes

Dear Colleagues,

Polyelectrolytes compose an important class of water-soluble polymers whose high functionality comes from the many ionic groups they bear. Natural polyelectrolytes like nucleic acids and proteins, as well as their assemblies, play a vital role in biological systems. Synthetically produced polyelectrolytes, which are nowadays very diverse in their composition, structure, and topology due to substantial progress in controlled polymerization techniques, are in demand because of their many applications—as flocculants, binders, coatings, rheology modifiers, etc. Even more functional and advanced macromolecular structures can be obtained when oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, either synthetic or natural, interact with each other. The products of this interaction, which is mainly electrostatic in its nature, are referred to as interpolyelectrolyte complexes, complex coacervates, or polyion complexes in the literature. Combining properties of their polymeric components, they at the same time possess features which make them unique self-organizing and adaptive macromolecular assemblies and already find (or hold promise for) application in many important fields such as materials engineering, medicine/biotechnology, ecology, etc., for example as polyelectrolyte multilayer coatings, interpolyelectrolyte complex binders and structure-forming agents, drug and non-viral gene carriers, etc.

This Special Issue is focused on recent advances in the physico-chemistry of polyelectrolytes and their assemblies in solution and at interfaces, with particular emphasis to stimuli-sensitive complex structures, their characterization, and (potential) applications. It aims at collecting papers considering such macromolecular systems both from a fundamental (including simulation/modeling) and an application-oriented point of view to outline emerging trends and main developments in this field of polymer science and related areas where ionic (co)polymers are exploited to impart functionality to already existing constructs or to create novel responsive (in the broadest sense of the word) systems.

Reviews, mini-reviews, and original research papers are welcome. There is particular interest in papers reporting yet unexplored (multi)functional systems based on ionic (co)polymers and approaches to their fabrication, characterization, and application.

Dr. Dmitry V. Pergushov
Guest Editor

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