Cement and cement composition having improved rheological properties

An improved cement comprising a mixture of a hydraulic cement and from 0.01 to 2 weight percent based on the weight of said hydraulic cement of an imidized acrylic polymer represented by the structure of:

• ##STR3## wherein each R independently represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl (CH.sub.3 --) group;
• A represents hydrogen atom, a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkyl group, R' or an alkali metal cation or a mixture thereof;
• R' represents a hydrogen atom or a C.sub.2 -C.sub.10 oxyalkylene group represented by (BO).sub.n R" in which O represents an oxygen atom, B represents a C.sub.2 -C.sub.10 alkylene group, R" represents a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkyl and n represents an integer of from 1-200, or mixtures thereof;
• and a, b, c and d are numerical values representing molar percentage of the polymer's structure such that a is a value of about 50 to 70;
• the sum of c+d is a value of from about 2 to the numerical value of (100-a);
• and b is a remainder value of [100-(a+c+d)].