ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some historical context and personal observations to one of the topics often treated in reviews of polymer-surfactant interactions, that is, binding isotherms and their theoretical interpretation. It describes the development of experimental evidence for cooperative binding in dilute polymer-surfactant solutions through the direct determination of binding isotherms, as well as the theoretical description of this cooperative effect. The experimental determination of a binding isotherm requires a procedure to separate surfactant molecules in the whole system into bound and free species. Polymer-surfactant interactions are conveniently classified by the electric charges of the two components. Since there are three types of interacting molecules as classified from their electric charge: positive, negative, and neutral, there are nine possible charge combinations. The SDS cluster on a protein-polypeptide strand experiences electrophoretic friction from the counterion atmosphere migrating in opposite direction from the SDS-polypeptide complex.
