The radical copolymerization of citronellol with acrylamide in xylene at (80 + 10) C for 1 h in the presence of benzoylperoxide follows ideal kinetics with bimolecular termination and results in the formation of an alternating copolymer as evidenced from the values of reactivity ratios as r(1) (acrylamide) = 0.0045 and r(2) (citronellol) = 0.0005, which have been calculated by Kelen-Tiidos method. The overall activation energy is computed as 44 kJ/mol. The IR spectrum of the copolymer shows the presence of bands at 3427 cm(-1) due to alcoholic group and 1710 cm(-1) due to amide group. The H-1 NMR spectrum of the copolymer shows peaks between 6.3 and 78 due to amide group (> C=O stretching) and between 7 and 7.7 delta due to alcoholic group. The values of Mark-Houwink constant for present copolymer system have been evaluated as alpha = 0.33 and K = 2.3 x 10(-1) with the help of gel permeation chromatography. The Alfrey-price, Q-a parameters for citronellol have been calculated as 0.43 and 1.07. The copolymer is highly thermally stable and has a glass transition temperature (T-g) of 102 degrees C as evaluated from differential scanning calorimetry studies. The mechanism has also been elucidated. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.