Composition that can be cured by polymerisation for the production of biodegradable, biocompatible, cross-linkable polymers on the basis of polyvinyl alcohol

A polymerization-curable composition for the preparation of biodegradable, biocompatible, cross-linked polymers, said composition comprising:

• a) 5 to 100% by weight of one or more vinyl ester monomers which are independently selected from compounds of one of the general formulas (I) to (III):
• wherein
• X is a heteroatom selected from the group consisting of oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus;
• each n is independently 1 to 1000, at least 20% of the n being 2;
• the groups R1 are independently selected from;
• i) hydrogen;
• straight, branched or cyclic, saturated or unsaturated, n-valent hydrocarbon groups which have 1 to 30 carbon atoms, which optionally comprise one or more heteroatoms selected from oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen, and phosphorus within the carbon chains and/or at the end of the carbon chains thereof, and which are optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of —OH, —COOH, —CN, —CHO, and , ═O, and
• ii) n-valent radicals of biodegradable, biocompatible oligomers and polymers selected from the group consisting of polysaccharides, polypeptides, polyamides, polyesters, polycarbonates, polyethers, and fatty acid derivatives;
• m is an integer from 0 to 4;
• the groups R2 are selected from the group consisting of —OH, ═O, and the options listed for R1;
• and
• the groups R3 are selected from —OH, and the options listed for R1;
• b) 0 to 50% by weight of one or more ethylenically unsaturated co-monomers selected from the group consisting of (meth)acrylic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, vinylpyrrolidon and α-olefin monomers;
• c) 0 to 10% by weight of one or more polymerization initiators selected from the group consisting of thermal initiators and photoinitiators;
• and
• d) 0 to 95% by weight of one or more solvents selected from the group consisting of water, lower alcohols, ether, ketone, ester, amide and hydrocarbon solvents.