Multi-Scale Structure of Coacervates formed by Oppositely Charged Polyelectrolytes

We develop a scaling model of coacervates formed by oppositely charged polyelectrolytes and demonstrate that they self-organize into multi-scale structures. The intramolecular electrostatic interactions in dilute polyanion or polycation solutions are characterized by the electrostatic blobs with size $D_{-}$ and $D_{+}$ respectively, that repel neighboring blobs on the same chains with electrostatic energy on the order of thermal energy $kT$. After mixing, electrostatic intramolecular repulsion of polyelectrolytes with higher charged density, say polyanions, keeps these polyanions in coacervates aligned into stretched arrays of electrostatic blobs of size $D_{-}