ABSTRACT
The group of water-soluble nonionic vinyl polymers to be considered in this chapter comprises two main polymers, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyvinylpyrrolidone, together with the two less important examples, polyvinyloxazolidone and polyvinylmethylox-azolidone. To clarify and simplify the subsequent consideration of these polymers, it is essential to start with a brief discussion of the nomenclature and abbreviations that will be used for them. From the structural viewpoint, the polyvinyl alcohol is apparently one of the simplest polymers, and correspondingly it might be expected to show a very simple pattern of the properties and the behavior. Polyvinyl alcohol cannot be produced by the direct polymerization of its monomer, because vinyl alcohol is unstable, with attempts at its synthesis leading to its isomer acetaldehyde. With most chiral polymers, the property of crystallinity is necessarily associated with marked stereoregularity, the atactic polymer thus being amorphous.
