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Polyelectrolyte gels

Ionic partners split up

Polyelectrolyte gels are currently used as superabsorbers for polar solvents, such as water. Designing them so that the polyelectrolyte chains and their counterions don't get too close to each other makes them useful for absorbing less-polar solvents, too.

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Figure 1: Swelling of gel reported by Sada and colleagues2.
Figure 2

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Colby, R. Ionic partners split up. Nature Mater 6, 401–402 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1908

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