Patent ID: 8809444

Claim:
An aqueous emulsion having a continuous and a discontinuous phase wherein said discontinuous phase comprises either water or comprises a network copolymer composition comprising a reaction product of: i) at least one anionic polymerizable ethylenically unsaturated monomer (I) selected from the group consisting of [CH 2 ═C(R 3 )C(O)OX a (C 2 H 4 O) b (C 3 H 6 O) c (C 4 H 8 O) d ] p P(O)(OY) q (OZ) r where R 3 ═H or alkyl of 1 to about 6 carbon atoms; X=alkyl, aryl, or alkaryl &radical connecting group of 0 to about 9 carbon atoms; a is 0 to about 100; b is 0 to about 100; c is 2 to about 100; d is 0 to about 100; q is 0 to about 2; r is 0 to about 2; p is 1 to about 3 subject to the limitation that p+q+r=3; and Y and Z is H, or metal ion; and CH 2 ═C(R 3 )C(O)OX a′ (C 2 H 4 O) b′ (C 3 H 6 O) c′ (C 4 H 8 O) d′ —SO 3 —Y where R 3 ═H or alkyl of from 1 to about 6 carbon atoms; X=alkyl, aryl, or alkaryl &radical connecting group of 0 to about atoms; a′ is 0 to about 100; b′ is 0 to about 100; c′ is 2 to about 100; d′ is 0 to about 100; Y is H, or metal ion; and (ii) one or more additional monomers (II) selected from the group consisting of acrylic acid/acrylate, methacrylic acid/methacrylate, acrylamides, vinyl acetate and styrene, which are copolymerizable with (I); and (in) a cross-linking agent (III), capable of copolymerizing with (I) and (II), providing that when said network copolymer composition is in the discontinuous phase of said aqueous emulsion, water is in said continuous phase of said emulsion and when said network copolymer composition is in the continuous phase of said aqueous emulsion, water is in said discontinuous phase of said emulsion, wherein said network composition comprises from 70 to 99 weight percent of the at least one anionic polymerizable ethylenically unsaturated monomer (I) based on the total weight of the monomers.