Novel elastomeric graft copolymers

Claim 1

An elastomeric, thermoplastic graft copolymer consisting essentially of A. an elastomeric trunk copolymer derived from at least two monomers, at least one of said monomers providing amine-reactive sites selected from the class consisting of an anhydride group, a vicinal pair of carboxylic groups, and a carboxylic group adjacent to an alkoxy-, phenoxy-, napthoxy-, substituted phenoxy-, or substituted naphthoxycarbonyl group, where the alkyl of the alkoxycarbonyl group has 1-10 carbon atoms, and the substituents of substituted phenoxycarbonyl and naphthoxycarbonyl groups can be a C 1 -C 10 alkyl, halogen, or a C 1 -C 10 alkoxy group; at least one of said monomers containing no amine-reactive sites and none of said monomers containing hydroxyl or amino groups; and B. a side chain polymer derived from a short chain polyamide represented by the formula ##STR9##where Z is ##STR10##R 1 and R 2 being independently selected from hydrogen, a C 1 -C 18 alkyl, benzyl, and C 5 -C 6 cycloalkyl; or taken together, being --(CH 2 ) 4 -, --(CH 2 ) 5 --, --(CH 2 ) 2 --O--(CH 2 ) 2 --, or ##STR11##where R 3 is a C 1 -C 6 alkyl; with the proviso that only one of R 1 and R 2 can be hydrogen; m is 5 and 11; and x is a positive number having an average value of 5-60; said side chain polymer being attached to said trunk copolymer through amide or imide linkages resulting from a reaction of the terminal primary amino group of said short chain polyamide with the amine-reactive sites of said trunk copolymer; the proportion of said elastomeric trunk copolymer in the graft copolymer being about 45-85 weight percent.