Abstract:
Provided by the present invention is a PVA having highly harmonized adequate water solubility, thickening property and coating film strength, and having superior storage stability in terms of the viscosity in an aqueous solution. A vinyl alcohol polymer having a ratio (Mw (A)/Mn (A)) of the weight average molecular weight (Mw (A)) to the number average molecular weight (Mn (A)) of 3 or greater and 8 or less, and being capable of giving a vinyl alcohol polymer having a ratio (Mw/Mn) of a weight average molecular weight (Mw) to a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 2 or greater and less than 3 when treated at 40 ° C. for 1 hour in a sodium hydroxide solution.
Abstract:
The present invention relates to an aqueous emulsion including an ethylenically unsaturated monomer unit-containing polymer as a dispersoid and a polyvinyl alcohol as a dispersant. The content of a free polyvinyl alcohol in the aqueous emulsion is 0.2 to 20 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of the ethylenically unsaturated monomer unit-containing polymer. The free polyvinyl alcohol has a degree of saponification of 80.0 to 99.5 mol % and a viscosity-average degree of polymerization of 200 to 5000, and the free polyvinyl alcohol has a symmetry factor (W0.05h/2f) that satisfies the following expression (1) as determined by gradient high-performance liquid chromatography for reversed-phase separation using a water-acetone eluent according to JIS K 0124 (2011). 0.85≦W0.05h/2f≦1.30 (1) (The definitions of the symbols are omitted.)