Manufacture of water-soluble heteropolymers

Claim 1

THE PROCESS OF DIRECTLY PREPARING WATER-SOLUBLE POLYMERS COMPRISING THE CONDENSATION REACTION AT ABOUT ROOM TEMPERATURE, WHILE THE REACTION MASS IS BEING WELL AGITATED, OF A SUBSTANTIALLY DRY, POWERED STYRENE-MALEIC ANHYDRIDE HETEROPOLYMER CONTAINING A SOLUBILIZING RADICAL SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF -OH, -ONA, -OK, -OLI, -ONH4, -NH2, -NRH WHEREIN R IS AN ALKYL RADICAL OF ONE TO 4 CARBON ATOMS, AND MORPHOLINYL, SUCH THAT THE SUM OF THE EQUIVALENTS OF SAID SOLUBILIZING RADICALS IS AT LEAST SUBSTANTIALLY ONE PER MOL OF HETEROPOLYMER UNIT, AND CONTAINING SOLUBILIZING AND ACTIVE HYDROGEN PROVIDING NITROGEN-CONTAINING RADICALS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF -ONH4, -NH2, AND -NRH WHEREIN R IS AN ALKYL RADICAL OF ONE TO 4 CARBON ATOMS, SUCH THAT THE SUM OF THE EQUIVALENTS OF SAID NITROGEN-CONTAINING RADICALS IS AT LEAST 0.05 PER MOL OF HETEROPOLYMER UNIT WITH FROM ABOUT 0.05 TO ABOUT 0.2 MOL PER HETEROPOLYMER UNIT OF AN ALDEHYDE FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF FORMALDEHYDE, ETHANAL, PROPANAL, AND FURFURAL, WHICH REACTION PRODUCT IS CHARACTERIZED AS A DRY, POWDERED, FREE-FLOWING, WATER-SOLUBLE POLYMER, THE AQUEOUS DISPERSION OF WHICH HAS A NON-NEWTONIAN VISCOSITY.