Does anyone have an idea how to determine the number of protonated and unprotonated carboxyl groups in functionalized poly(acrylic acid) under explicit salt and polymer concentrations?
Dear Anna Siedel, being a weak polyelectrolyte, its dissociation (protonation) is pH dependent. It is usually accepted that starting from pH 2.24 the dissociation of carboxylic acid groups start to dissociate. In the case of polymers the situation becomes more complex, and the complexity increased more with increasing molecular weight since the globular form and enteglements act physically against the ease of dissociation. Many theories have been devetoed to study weak and strong polyelectrolytes dissociation. The following documents and links give details. My Regards