New hydrophilic polymers bearing a functional group at one chain end a
dsorb on mineral surfaces, providing a good steric stabilization of co
lloidal suspensions. Adsorption isotherms and rheological measurements
on aqueous calcium carbonate dispersions show the best fluidizing eff
iciency of long enough polyoxyethylenes (more than 20 monomer units) h
aving a diphosphonate group of high affinity for the mineral surface a
t their chain end.