ABSTRACT
Associating polyelectrolytes (APEL) are molecules consisting of water-soluble charged units (hydrophilic blocks) and insoluble (hydrophobic) groups (stickers) distributed along the chain. At high enough attraction between the stickers, they can aggregate to each other and form reversible junctions. In this chapter, we will focus our attention on the behavior of weakly charged APEL; that is, molecules containing a small fraction of the charged units. We consider APEL solutions in polar media where charged groups of the chain are completely dissociated and mobile counterions are freely in the solution.
