An aqueous ambient crosslinkable polymer acrylic (AACPA) emulsion was obtained by adding adipic acid dihydrazide (ADH) to the polyacrylate emulsion incorporating diacetone acrylamide (DAAM), and this emulsion was synthesized by two feeding materials methods. The AACPA emulsion and its paint film were characterized with rheological measurements, laser light scattering, Fourier transform infrared, torsional braid analysis (TBA), DTA, and so on. The results showed that AACPA emulsion was pseudoplastic fluid and pseudoplasticity increased with increasing of DAAM content. The results also showed that water resistance, solvent resistance, and thermotacky temperature of AACPA paint film increased with increasing of the content of DAAM. The results dealing with curing behavior of the paint film showed that adding organic swelling solvent and organic acid to the AACPA emulsion can accelerate the curing speed of the paint film. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.