Ammonium acrylate was first used as a comonomer to copolymerize with acrylonitrile. The viscosity behavior of dimethyl formamide solutions of acrylonitrile/ammonium acrylate copolymer was studied, and the rheological kinetics of the solutions were studied for comparison. It was shown that the solutions behaved the same as a Newtonian flow as the rotor speed increased beyond 12 rpm. With an increase in temperature, the apparent viscosity of acrylonitrile/ammonium acrylate copolymer solutions showed a trend of decreasing. The changes in the apparent flow-activation energy of solutions (E-eta) calculated by the Arrhenius equation became less prominent along with the changes in the molecular weight of the acrylonitrile/ammonium acrylate copolymers. E,1 increased continuously with an increase in copolymer concentration. The viscosity of copolymer solutions decreased continuously as the concentrations of KCl and NaCl increased up to 0.015 mol/L, and then it increased. The En showed an obvious trend of decreasing with the addition of alkali salts, and the changes in the E, containing NaCl were more prominent than those of solutions containing KCl. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.