Phase behaviors of a mixture containing charged polymers with or without conformational asymmetry

Through the combination of a molecular equation-of-state model based on liquid state theory and a self-consistent field theory, the phase behaviors of a mixture containing weakly charged polymers is investigated. The free energy of the system in the bulk state consists of that from the corresponding charged hard sphere chain system and nonbonded dispersion interactions. Then, a self-consistent field theory is formulated through the incorporation of the excess free energy into the Hamiltonian. The system is allowed to have different monomer sizes or in other words conformational asymmetry. It is shown that the conventional unfavorable energetics between components, excluded volume along with conformational asymmetry, and the effective shielding of charged monomers come into play to affect the inhomogeneity in the mixtures. The responses of the systems, in particular, thermo-responsivity and baro-responsivity are to be discussed.