*Article* **Synthesis and Application of Tackifying Dispersant Poly (Vinyl Alcohol-Acrylic Acid-Triallyl Cyanate)**

**Xiaoyan Chen 1, Weizhi Huang 1, Bobing He 1,\* and Yafeng Zhang <sup>2</sup>**

<sup>2</sup> College of Materials Science and Engineering, Xihua University, Chengdu 610065, China; zyffcb@163.com

**\*** Correspondence: hebobing@scu.edu.cn

**Abstract:** At present, the thickener market is relatively advanced. Only by imparting thickeners with new properties can they meet the needs of the current market. In this work, a new modified tackifying dispersant poly (vinyl alcohol-acrylic acid-triallyl cyanate) (PVA-AA-t) was prepared via alcoholysis of a random copolymer composed of vinyl acetate (VAc), acrylic acid (AA), and triallyl cyanate (TAC) by a one-step high-temperature solution polymerization in methanol, which was a relatively simple method. The structure of the polymer was characterized by FTIR and TG. FTIR proved the successful synthesis of PVA-AA-t, while TG showed the thermal stability of PVA-AA-t at around 100 ◦C. The excellent thickening properties of the PVA-AA-t were observed using a nano particle size analyzer and a rotary viscometer. The nano particle size analyzer showed that the PVA-AA-t particles swelled in water to nearly nine times their initial size. The rotary viscometer showed that the viscosity of PVA-AA-t in water increased significantly, while PVA-AA-t was sensitive to electrolytes and pH, which changed the polymer molecular chain from stretched to curled, resulting in a decrease in viscosity. In addition, the dispersion properties of PVA-AA-t and a common thickener as graphene (Gr) dispersants were compared. The results indicate that PVA-AA-t has very good compatibility with Gr, and can effectively disperse Gr, because of the introduction of weak polar molecules (VAc) to the polymer molecules, changing their polarity, meaning that it is possible to use PVA-AA-t in the dispersion of Gr and other industrial applications (such as conductive textile materials, Gr batteries, etc.) derived from it.

**Keywords:** thickener; dispersant; graphene
