Communications to the editor pH-activity response for immobilized beta-glucosidase.

Abstract

For binary mixtures the phase separation depends on various typical parameters like pressure and temperature. In addition, in 1965 Debye and Kleboth showed that it can also be influenced by external electric fields. They found that a moderate electric field lowers the critical point of a mixture of low molecular weight components.1 In 1993, Wirtz et al. proved the same for polymer solutions of homopolymers.2 However, the behavior of block copolymer systems in melt and solution is still under debate as different theoretical approaches predict contrary effects of an electric field on different binary systems (polymer-solvent or polymer-polymer). On the order-disorder transition temperature (TODT).3,4 On the other hand, composition fluctuations should be suppressed, weakening the phase transition, and therefore TODT shifts to higher temperatures under electric fields.5 So far, theory only agrees that the observed effect should increase with increasing electric field strength.2,6-10 However, in the past, it was anticipated that experimentally accessible electric fields would not be of sufficient strength to induce a measurable effect.3