TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: (II) is sodium or lithium or potassium or ammonium poly(aspartate), polyvinyl alcohol, inulin, maltodextrins or natural gums (preferably sodium poly(aspartate)). The polyvalent ion is ammonium ferrous sulfate, ammonium ferric sulfate, ammonium iron citrate, ammonium vanadous sulfate, ammonium hypovandous sulfate or ammonium cupric chloride (preferably an iron salt). The initiator is sodium persulfate, potassium persulfate, ammonium persulfate, tert-butyl hydroperoxide or hydrogen peroxide (preferred).    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Process: The polyvalent metal ion is added at the start of the reaction. The initiator is added before or after the monomer addition, where the initiator concentration is 0.1-20 wt.% of the total weight of sodium poly(aspartate). The monomer (1-95%) is added before or after the initiator addition. The graft copolymerization is run at solid levels of 10-80%. Preferred Components: The monomer is acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, maleic acid, maleic anhydride methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, hexyl acrylate, isooctyl acrylate, isodecyl acrylate, lauryl acrylate, octadecyl acrylate, hydroxyl methyl acrylate, hydroxyl ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate, acrylonitrile, styrene, vinyl acetate, vinyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, acrylamide, methyl acrylamide, methyl methacrylamide, dimethyl acrylamide, ethyl acrylamide, ethyl methacrylamide, diethyl acrylamide, n-isopropyl acrylamide, n-isopropyl methacrylamide, iso-butyl acrylamide, n-butyl acrylamide, diacetone acrylamide, acrylamidomethylpropane sulfonic acid, vinyl sulfonic acid, allyl sulfonic acid, styrene sulfonic acid, vinyl pyrrolidone, vinyl imidazole, vinyl formamide, vinyl caprolactam, vinyl pyridine, n-methylamino-methyl acrylate, dimethylaminomethyl acrylate, n-methylaminoethyl acrylate, dimethylaminoethyl acrylate, n-ethylaminomethylacrylate, diethylaminomethylacrylate, n-ethylaminoethylacrylates, diethylaminoethylacrylates, acryloylmorpholine, acryloyl pyrrolidine, methacryloyl pyrrolidine, ethyloxazoline, n-vinyl acetamide or n-methyl-n-vinyl acetamide. EXAMPLE - Sodium poly(aspartate) (38%) (10.5 g) was added in water (10 ml) in a flask fitted with condenser and nitrogen inlet tube. The pH of the solution was adjusted to 3.5 with nitric acid. Ferrous ammonium sulfate (0.16 g) was added to the above solution in the flask and the whole solution was bubbled with nitrogen for half an hour with stirring. Then hydrogen peroxide (0.32 g) was added to the solution and vinyl pyrrolidone (1.72 g) was added 2 minutes after hydrogen peroxide addition. Reaction was continued for three hours under nitrogen blanket with stirring. The resulting solution was weighed to 22 g with a solid content of 25 wt.%.