Contrast variation of micelles composed of Ca2+ and block copolymers of two negatively charged polyelectrolytes Carl, Nico Prévost, Sylvain Schweins, Ralf Huber, Klaus Materials Chemistry Colloid and Surface Chemistry Polymers and Plastics Physical and Theoretical Chemistry <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Block copolymers were prepared with two anionic polyelectrolyte blocks: sodium polyacrylate (PA) and sodium polystyrene sulfonate (PSS), in order to investigate their phase behavior in aqueous solution in the presence of Ca<jats:sup>2+</jats:sup> cations. Depending on the concentration of polymer and Ca<jats:sup>2+</jats:sup> and on the ratio of the block lengths in the copolymer, spherical micelles were observed. Micelle formation arises from the specific interaction of Ca<jats:sup>2+</jats:sup> with the PA block only. An extensive small-angle scattering study was performed in order to unravel the structure and dimensions of the block copolymer micelles. Deuteration of the PA block enabled us to perform contrast variation experiments using small-angle neutron scattering at variable ratios of light and heavy water which were combined with information from small-angle X-ray scattering and dynamic light scattering.</jats:p> Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 https://ris.uni-paderborn.de/record/41819 Carl N, Prévost S, Schweins R, Huber K. Contrast variation of micelles composed of Ca2+ and block copolymers of two negatively charged polyelectrolytes. <i>Colloid and Polymer Science</i>. 2020;298(7):663-679. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-019-04596-1">10.1007/s00396-019-04596-1</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1007/s00396-019-04596-1 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/0303-402X info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1435-1536 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess