Impact of Bottlebrush Polyelectrolytes on Polyelectrolyte Complex Physical Properties

Polyelectrolyte complexes (PECs) spontaneously form via phase separation upon mixing of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. Traditionally, PECs have been composed of linear block, statistical and homopolyelectrolytes, which should make uncovering structure-property relationships more straightforward. However, the combinatorial nature of these materials makes uncovering these relationships more difficult, so many predictive design principles for PEC properties remain elusive. To address this issue, we have explored non-linear polyelectrolyte architectures, like bottlebrushes, in the hopes that we may be able to uncover chemically agnostic design principles related to polymer topology within PECs. In this talk we will address the main implications of bottlebrush polyelectrolyte architecture on PEC mechanical properties, phase and internal structure using a combination of rheology, optical microscopy and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) through comparisons between linear-linear, linear-bottlebrush and bottlebrush-bottlebrush PECs.