Viscosity behavior of dimethyl sulfoxide solutions of acrylonitrile (AN)/amino ethyl-2-methyl propenoate (AEMP) copolymer was discussed. Rheological kinetics of the solutions was studied in contrast. It is shown that the solutions behave the same as Newtonian flow as the rotor speed goes beyond 12 rpm. With an increase of temperature, the apparent viscosity of AN/AEMP copolymer solutions shows a trend of decrease. The changes of the apparent flow activation energy of solutions calculated by Arrhenius equation become less prominent along with the changes of the molecular weight of AN/AEMP copolymers. The apparent flow activation energy of the copolymer solutions increases continuously with an increase of copolymer concentration. The viscosity of copolymer solutions decreases continuously as the concentrations of KCl and NaCl up to 0.02 mol L-1, and then it increases. the apparent flow-activation energy of AN/AEMP copolymer solutions shows an obvious trend of decrease with addition of alkali salts and the changes of the apparent flow-activation energy of solutions containing NaCl are more prominent than those of solutions containing KCl. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.