  The interaction between polyelectrolyte and ionic surfactant is of great
importance in different areas of chemistry and biology. In this paper we
present a theory of polyelectrolyte ionic-surfactant solutions. The new theory
successfully explains the cooperative transition observed experimentally, in
which the condensed counterions are replaced by ionic-surfactants. The
transition is found to occur at surfactant densities much lower than those for
a similar transition in non-ionic polymer-surfactant solutions. Possible
application of DNA surfactant complex formation to polynucleotide delivery
systems is also mentioned.
