The phase behavior of mixtures of a cationic polyelectrolyte ('Jaguar') and an anionic surfactant (either sodium dodecyl sulfate or sodium lauryl ether sulfate) has been studied. For a given polyelectrolyte (and added NaCl) concentration, with increasing surfactant concentration, three phase regions were identified. The first region is a single homogeneous phase. Within this region, at some surfactant concentration, above the critical aggregation concentration, stable open-network 'particles' form, typically approximately 100 nm in size, which are net positively charged. However, as the surfactant concentration is increased further, these particles aggregate and form a two-phase system, i.e. a separated gel phase, containing a high percentage of water, co-existing with an aqueous surfactant phase. At some higher surfactant concentration still, the particles become sufficiently negatively charged that they re-stabilize. Beyond this surfactant concentration, therefore, the system reverts to being a single, homogeneous phase. Within the two-phase (aggregated particle) region an iso-electric point for the particles has been observed at a certain surfactant concentration, by electrophoresis. Furthermore, in this aggregated, gel-phase region, there appear to be typically approximately 2-4 surfactant molecules associated with each cationic site of the polymer chains. It is postulated that association of the anionic surfactant molecules occurs within the polyelectrolyte chains, binding them together, to form the particles referred to. These associated surfactant structures have been referred to here as 'internal' micelles. A crude estimate has been made, based on turbidity/time measurements, that there may be up to approximately 1000 polymer chains in each primary particle, bound together by the internal surfactant micelles. Small-angle light scattering studies of the aggregating particles indicate a fractal dimension for the aggregates, which would correspond to a diffusion-limited aggregation process.

中文翻译：

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在阳离子聚电解质和阴离子表面活性剂的混合物中絮凝。

已经研究了阳离子聚电解质（“ Jaguar”）和阴离子表面活性剂（十二烷基硫酸钠或十二烷基醚硫酸钠）的混合物的相行为。对于给定的聚电解质（和添加的NaCl）浓度，随着表面活性剂浓度的增加，确定了三个相区域。第一区域是单个均质相。在该区域内，在一定的表面活性剂浓度（高于临界聚集浓度）下，形成稳定的开放网络“颗粒”形式，通常大小约为100 nm，并带正电荷。然而，随着表面活性剂浓度的进一步增加，这些颗粒聚集并形成两相体系，即分离的凝胶相，其含有高百分比的水，与表面活性剂水相共存。仍在较高的表面活性剂浓度下，颗粒带足够的负电荷，使其重新稳定。因此，超出该表面活性剂浓度，系统将恢复为单一的均相。在两相（聚集的颗粒）区域内，通过电泳在一定的表面活性剂浓度下观察到了颗粒的等电点。此外，在该聚集的凝胶相区域中，似乎通常存在约2-4个与聚合物链的每个阳离子位点相关的表面活性剂分子。假定阴离子表面活性剂分子在聚电解质链内发生缔合，将它们结合在一起，形成所涉及的颗粒。这些相关的表面活性剂结构在本文中被称为“内部”胶束。基于浊度/时间测量，已经做出了粗略的估计，每个初级粒子中最多有约1000条聚合物链，这些聚合物链被内部表面活性剂胶束结合在一起。聚集颗粒的小角度光散射研究表明聚集体的分形维数，这将对应于扩散受限的聚集过程。