Patent ID: 6858678

Claim:
A composition consisting of: A) a polymeric product consisting of: (a) about 3 to about 97 percent by weight of at least one ethylenically unsaturated acid-functional monomer which has been polymerized into the polymeric product; (b) about 3 to about 97 percent by weight at least one alkyl ester of the ethylenically unsaturated acid-functional monomers, wherein the alkyl group is a linear or branched chain alkyl radical having greater than 11 carbon atoms which has been polymerized into the polymeric product; (c) about 0 to about 85 percent by weight of at least one aromatic ethylenically unsaturated monomer which has been polymerized into the polymeric product; and (d) about 0 to about 85 percent by weight of at least one non-aromatic ethylenically unsaturated vinyl monomer which has been polymerized into the polymeric product; and B) water, wherein an aqueous resin cut at a solids content of 30.5%, a pH of from 7.7 to 8.2, and a temperature of 25 C, of the polymeric product has a solution viscosity which is less than about 50 percent of the solution viscosity of an aqueous resin cut at a solids content of 30.5%, a pH of 7.8, and a temperature of 25 C, of a second polymeric product identical to the polymeric product except that it does not contain any of the alkyl ester of the ethylenically unsaturated acid-functional monomers of (b), and wherein the weight percent of (a), (b), (c) and (d) is base on the total weight of the polymeric product.