The effect of enzymatic digestion on the proton and copper(II) binding ability of hyaluronate (HYA), a macromolecular polyelectrolyte, and its fragments were studied via potentiometry. The degree of depolymerization was measured by spectrophotometry. The log Kapp vs. α functions (where α is the mole fraction of dissociated carboxyl groups in the samples) and the protonation group constants were determined in the native and enzymatically partly and completely decomposed samples. The two different data treatments led to the same chemical consequences. The interaction between copper(II) and HYA was found to be less dependent on the degree of depolymerization than that between H+ and HYA, the results indicating an almost negligible role of longrange electrostatic forces in the copper(II)–HYA interaction. All the investigations demonstrated that enzymatic digestion can be used advantageously for the characterization of the macromolecular effect in coordination processes.
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