TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Substances: The hydrophobic group which forms a carboxyl group upon saponification is an 1-18C alkyloxycarbonyl group.The hydrophobic polyfunctional monomer is divinylaryl compound and/or divinyl fluoroalkane compound.The copolymer comprises methyl acrylate units, divinyl benzene units and styrene sulfonate units, as monomer units.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Composition: The copolymerization ratio of hydrophobic polyfunctional monomer to hydrophobic monomer is 0.01:100-10:100 by weight.Preferred Property: The precursor is a copolymer in the form of water dispersion system such that the copolymer has particle size of 0.1-100 microns.Preferred Process: The precursor is supported on an alkali-resistant backing, and the precursor is coated at a rate of 2.5-20 g/square m in terms of solid on a nonwoven or woven fabric.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - TEXTILES AND PAPER - Preferred Material: The backing is a nonwoven fabric, woven fabric or porous film. The fabric is made of fibers of polypropylene and/or polyethylene. Preferably, the backing is a nonwoven fabric made of fibers of polypropylene which comprises 0.1-5 weight % of sulfone groups.Preferred Property: The nonwoven and woven fabrics each has a weight of 10-300 g/square m and the fibers have a diameter of 1-10 microns. EXAMPLE - Methyl methacrylate (in weight parts) (70), sodium styrene sulfonate (3), divinyl benzene (3.66), potassium persulfate (1.5) and deionized water (550) were polymerized at 70 degrees C for 8 hours under nitrogen atmosphere. The copolymer in the resulting polymerization mixture had particle size of 300-500 nm, alkaline solution absorption rate of 1500% and 95% remainder after washing with water.    A dispersion of the obtained copolymer was coated on a sulfonation-treated nonwoven polypropylene fabric (having thickness of 125 microns, weight of 62 g/square m, and specific gravity of 1). The amount of copolymer impregnated was 10 g/square m. The coated sample was dried to obtain a precursor-treated nonwoven fabric sample. The sample was then placed in a solution consisting of 15% of potassium hydroxide, 51% of methanol and 34% of water, for 2 hours at 65 degrees C. After saponification was completed, the sample was removed from the solution, washed and dried at 80 degrees C.    The nonwoven fabric with the saponified product was found to have alkaline solution absorption amount of 110 g/square m and electrical conductivity of 0.44 S/cm. The obtained nonwoven fabric was used as separator in an nickel hydrogen secondary cell, and excellent cell performance was obtained.