| abstract |
Water-soluble copolymers of maleic acid useful as water treatment agents are prepared by copolymerizing (a) from 99 to 80% by weight of maleic anhydride and (b) from 1 to 20% by weight of a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer copolymerizable therewith and, facultatively, (c) up to 10% by weight of a crosslinker, at from 60 DEG to 200 DEG C. in an aromatic hydrocarbon in the presence of peroxyesters derived from saturated or monoethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids, and hydrolyzing the anhydride groups of the copolymers following the polymerization. |