Ionic hydrocarbon polymers

Claim 1

IONIC COPOLYMERS OF A-OLEFINS HAVING THE FORMULA R-CH=CH2, WHERE R IS A RADICAL SELECTED FROM THE CLASS CONSISTING OF HYDROGEN AND ALKYL RADICALS HAVING FROM 1 TO 8 CARBON ATOMS, AND A,B-ETHYLENICALLY UNSATURATED CARBOXYLIC ACIDS HAVING FROM 3 TO 8 CARBON ATOMS, SAID COPOLYMERS HAVING FROM 10% TO 90% OF THE CARBOXYLIC ACID GROUPS IONIZED BY NEUTRALIZATION WITH METAL IONS UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED THROUGHOUT THE COPOLYMER, SAID COPOLYMER BEING A DIRECT COPOLYMER OF THE A-OLEFINS AND THE UNSATURATED CARBOXYLIC ACID IN WHICH THE CARBOXYLIC ACID GROUPS ARE RANDOMLY DISTRIBUTED OVER ALL MOLECULES AND IN WHICH (1) THE A-OLEFIN CONTENT OF THE COPOLYMER IS AT LEAST 50 MOL PERCENT, BASED ON THE A-OLEFIN-ACID COPOLYMER (2) THE UNSATURATED CARBOXYLIC ACID CONTENT OF THE COPOLYMER IS FROM 0.2 TO 25 MOL PERCENT, BASED ON THE A-OLEFIN-ACID COPOLYMER, AND (3) ANY OTHER MONOMER COMPONENT OPTIONALLY COPOLYMERIZED IN SAID COPOLYMER IS MONOETHYLENICALLY UNSATURATED, AND SAID METAL IONS HAVING AN IONIZED VALENCE OF FROM ONE TO THREE INCLUSIVE WHEN THE UNSATURATED ACID IS A MONOCARBOXYLIC ACID AND AN IONIZED VALENCE OF ONE WHEN THE UNSATURATED ACID IS A DICARBOXYLIC ACID AND SAID METAL IONS BEING SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF UNCOMPLEXED AND COMPLEXED METAL IONS, SAID IONIC COPOLYMERS HAVING SOLID STATE PROPERTIES CHARACTERISTIC OF CROSSLINKED POLYMERS AND MELT-FABRICABILITY PROPERTIES CHARACTERISTIC OF UNCROSSLINKED, THEREMOPLASTIC POLYMERS.