Polysaccharide graft polymers containing acetal groups and their

Abstract

Polysaccharide graft polymers which comprise an acetal-containing or aldehyde-containing homopolymer or copolymer grafted to a polysaccharide base have been prepared. The monomer repeating units in the homopolymer are derived from one or more ethylenically or allylically unsaturated monomers containing an acetal group or aldehyde group; The monomer repeating units in the copolymer are derived from the above monomer and derived from one or more ethylenically or allylically unsaturated monomers other than the acetal-containing or aldehyde-containing monomer. A and A' are independently a lower alkyl or A and A' together form at least a 5-membered cyclic acetal; with the proviso that the graft polymer contain no ##STR1## groups when the aldehyde groups are present. The aldehyde-containing graft polymers are useful for imparting wet strength to paper. Various novel acetal- and aldehyde-containing monomers have also been prepared; they can be graft polymerized to polysaccharide substrates or polymerized by conventional emulsion polymerization techniques with vinyl polymerizable monomers.