Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs), which are produced by the complexation of two oppositely charged polymers (Pol+Pol-), are as intriguing as they are beneficial. Their properties have been studied extensively in the literature and their incorporation into many devices (such as solid state batteries) is an area of ongoing research. It is their unique transformative nature which makes them excellent candidates in material design. PECs can be cooled from liquid-like states to give amorphous solids at their glass transition temperature. PECs can also undergo transformations in morphology at a fixed temperature when salt counterions are introduced into the PEC, breaking the sticky interactions (Pol+Pol-) formed between oppositely charged monomer segments. The dynamics of such systems are expected to vary significantly as a function of temperature and salt. In fact, at very low salt content, the dynamics of a PEC made from PMAPTAC (Pol+: poly(methacrylamidopropyltrimethylammonium chloride)) and PMA-Na (Pol-: poly(sodium methacrylate)) show a much stronger dependence on chain length than predicted by classical theories of entangled polymers. Probing the dynamics at the shortest length scales helps to understand the origin of this exceptional behavior. This is possible in PECs because the dynamics of counter-ions can be excellent reporters of dynamics of monomer segments; the former can be studied via conductivity measurements. Shedding light on the interesting behavior of polymer chains in PECs will help in further exploiting their properties in material design.

Dynamics in saloplastics

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