Graft copolymers of unsaturated monomers and sugars, a process for the production and the use thereof

In a method of treating a textile material selected from raw fiber materials, fibers and textiles, comprising contacting said textile material with a treatment solution, the improvement comprising incorporating in said treatment solution an amount of a graft copolymer effective to enhance a textile treatment selected from the group consisting of textile finishing, raw fiber pretreatment, boiling off, kier scouring, bleaching, dyeing, textile printing, reactive print washing, vat color washing, and desizing, said graft copolymer obtained by radical graft copolymerization of from 40 to 95 parts by weight of a monomer mixture in the presence of from 5 to 60 parts by weight of a saccharide component selected from the group consisting of monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, saccharide derivatives, and mixtures thereof;

• said saccharide derivatives being selected from the group consisting of sorbitol, mannitol, gluconic acid, glucuronic acid, alkyl glycosides, and alkyl-, hydroxyalkyl- and carboxyalkyl- ethers of saccharides;
• said monomer mixture comprising the following components:
• A) 36.95 to 96%-wt. of at least one monoethylenically unsaturated C3-C10 monocarboxylic acid, or salt thereof with a monovalent cation;
• B) 4 to 55%-wt. of at least one monoethylenically unsaturated monomer comprising a monosulfonic acid group, monoethylenically unsaturated sulfuric acid ester, vinylphosphonic acid or a salt thereof with a monovalent cation;
• C) 0 to 30%-wt. of at least one water-soluble, monoethylenically unsaturated polyalkyleneglycol ether of (meth)allyl alcohol or polyalkyleneglycol ester of (meth)acrylic acid, containing 2 to 50 moles of alkylene oxide units per mole of (meth) allyl alcohol or (meth)acrylic acid;
• D) 0 to 45%-wt. of at least one further, water-soluble, radically polymerizable monomer or a monomer which comprises at least two ethylenically unsaturated double-bonds, or an ethylenically unsaturated double-bond and a cross-linkable functional group other than an ethylenically unsaturated double-bond, and
• E) 0 to 30%-wt. other radically polymerizable monomers which are slightly soluble or insoluble in water selected from the group consisting of C.sub.1 to C18 alkyl(meth)acrylic acid esters, hydroxyalkyl(meth)acrylic acid esters, mono- and dialkyl esters of maleic acid, N-alkyl and N,N-dialkyl(meth)acrylamides and vinyl carboxylic acid esters,
• the sum of components A to E being 100%-wt.