Acrylic ampholytic ionomers

In a continuing study of the preparation of ampholytic ionomers from the polymerization of ion-pair comonomers (cationic-anionic monomer pairs) with nonionic comonomers, the preparation of such ionomers from methyl methacrylate and n-butyl acrylate is described. For both systems, ionomers of varying ion contents were obtained. In the n-butyl acrylate system, a linear relationship of T_q vs. mol % ion content was found, but this did not occur for the methyl methacrylate ionomers. The solubilities of these materials in a wide variety of solvents is discussed. It appears that for n-butyl acrylate ionomers of high ion content in aqueous solution, a new form of polymeric surfactant is obtained.