Influence of Salt on Swelling and Modulus of Polyelectrolyte Gels

Yi-Ming Liu; Jia-Dong Chen; Xian-Zhao Huang; Zhi-Xing Zhang; Guang Chen

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3662-1

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Influence of Salt on Swelling and Modulus of Polyelectrolyte Gels

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-06-04

- Influence of Salt on Swelling and Modulus of Polyelectrolyte Gels
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Issue 8, Pages: 2495-2501(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.School of Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  b.Industrialization Center of Micro & Nano ICs and Devices, Sino-German College of Intelligent Manufacturing, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen 518118, China
  c.Key Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Author bio：
  
  guangc@pku.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3662-1
  CLC：
- Received：05 February 2026，
  
  Accepted：11 March 2026，
  
  Online First：30 May 2026，
  
  Published：15 August 2026
- Accepted：
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Liu, Y. M.; Chen, J. D.; Huang, X. Z.; Zhang, Z. X.; Chen, G. Influence of salt on swelling and modulus of polyelectrolyte gels. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2495–2501

Yi-Ming Liu, Jia-Dong Chen, Xian-Zhao Huang, et al. Influence of Salt on Swelling and Modulus of Polyelectrolyte Gels[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(8): 2495-2501.
Liu, Y. M.; Chen, J. D.; Huang, X. Z.; Zhang, Z. X.; Chen, G. Influence of salt on swelling and modulus of polyelectrolyte gels. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2495–2501 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3662-1.

Yi-Ming Liu, Jia-Dong Chen, Xian-Zhao Huang, et al. Influence of Salt on Swelling and Modulus of Polyelectrolyte Gels[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(8): 2495-2501. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3662-1.

摘要

Polyelectrolyte gels exhibit salt-responsive swelling behavior due to electrostatic interactions between charged monomers and mobile ions. Using a cell model that explicitly addresses inter-monomer electrostatic interactions

we investigate the salt-dependent swelling and shear modulus of polyelectrolyte gels

and reveal four distinct scaling regimes covering both overlapping and non-overlapping electric double layers.

Abstract

Polyelectrolyte (PE) gels are widely used in fields ranging from controlled drug delivery to tissue engineering

owing to their stimuli-responsive swelling behavior. The electrostatic interactions within the gels play a crucial role in the physical mechanisms underlying this response. In this work

we investigate the salt-dependent swelling behavior and shear modulus of PE gels based on a cell model

which explicitly addresses the inter-monomer electrostatic interactions. Through free energy minimization and asymptotic analysis

we derive four distinct scaling regimes for the equilibrium swelling ratio and modulus as functions of salt concentration

covering both overlapping and non-overlapping electric double layers. Comparisons between polyelectrolyte gels with different cross-link densities and charge intensities are also presented.

关键词

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references

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