Abstract
A series of n-alkyl hydrogen esters of styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer has been prepared by reacting the copolymer with the first nine n-alkanols in the presence of pyridine. Intrinsic viscosities determined in acetone have been converted to theta conditions and used to estimate the comparative root mean square end-to-end distances of the esters. A minimum value was found for the n-hexyl hydrogen ester. Solutions of the esters in dimethyl formamide show polyelectrolyte behaviour. From viscosity measurements it was found that the methyl hydrogen ester was more dissociated than the n-hexyl hydrogen ester.