The use of the renewable resource oleic acid to produce environmentally friendly polymeric materials with potential applications as coatings was investigated in this work. Methacrylated derivative oleic acid monomer was synthesized by addition of the carboxylic acid with glycidyl methacrylate, with the aim of preserving the double bonds of the acid backbone. Two catalysts with auto-oxidative potential were used for that purpose and the resulting monomer was further polymerized via free radical miniemulsion polymerization. Total conversion latexes with a significant amount of gel, mainly because of the crosslinking through the double bonds of the oleic acid, were obtained. No influence of the monomer type on the kinetics and microstructural properties was observed. Polymer films were evaluated and an important improvement on mechanical properties was achieved by the auto-oxidative curing of the remaining unsaturations along the polymer backbone, promoted by the catalyst present in the latex. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012