Patent ID: 7041281

Claim:
A natural feel polymer which shows an advantageous blend of stiffness and flexibility, a strong affinity to natural fibers, water-solubility and water-resistance, characterized structurally by repeat units of (a) a monomer-maleic anhydride alkyl half-ester or full acid, (b) maleamic acid, and (c) maleimide, of the formulas: where: R, R 1 , R 2 and R 3 are selected from H, alkyl, alkoxy, cycloalkyl, aryl, ester, acid, hydroxy, hydroxyalkyl, amido, fluoro, halo and silyl, and R 4 is H or alkyl; and R′ is a polyoxyalkylene amine, having the formula: where R 5 and R 6 are selected from H and alkyl; and n and m are integers from 1-50; wherein: x, y and z are present, in mole %, of 0-99.9, 0-50 and 0.1-100, respectively.