| abstract |
Plastic graft copolymers consisting essentially of a crystalline trunk copolymer derived from ethylene and a comonomer providing amine-reactive sites selected from the group consisting of an anhydride group, a vicinal pair of carboxylic groups and a carboxylic group adjacent to an alkoxycarbonyl group, the alkoxy group having up to 20 carbon atoms, preferably 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and side chain polymers linked to said reactive sites through amide or imide linkages, the side chains having an average degree of polymerization of 5 to 30, preferably 6 to 10, and being derived from monomers selected from the group consisting of caprolactam or laurolactam, said graft copolymer having a polyamide content of 15 to 50 percent by weight based on the weight of graft copolymer with the proviso that the graft copolymer has two DTA melting points, one at 80° to 115°C. and the other at at least 165°C., preferably at 175 to 200°C. when polycaprolactam side chains are present and at least 150°C., preferably 150° to 170°C., when polylaurolactam side chains are present. Preferably, the comonomer is maleic anhydride, half ester of maleic acid or the half ester of itaconic acid. The trunk copolymer preferably contains 85 to 99 percent by weight ethylene. |