ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Polymer-Surfactant reaction in systems comprising an uncharged water-soluble polymer and a charged synthetic surfactant. T. G. Jones illustrated the elegant simplicity of the surface tension method when applied to a mixture of a highly surface-active species, the surfactant, and a feebly surface-active species, the polymer. In a 1957 paper, S. Saito showed that considerable increases in the viscosity of methylcellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) solutions can be brought about by the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), presumably due to a combination of electrical charging and attendant conformational effects. A similar intermediate transition in the specific conductivity/SDS concentration plot, showing the same weak dependence on polymer concentration, has been reported by N. W. Fadnavis and co-workers for mixed SDS solutions with PVP and with two grades of polyvinyl alcohol. Ultracentrifugation experiments were carried out by J. Francois on a high-molecular-weight polyethylene oxide specimen, in the presence and absence of SDS.
