Patent ID: 7037992

Claim:
A degradable olefin copolymer having a backbone comprising nonhydrolyzable monomer units and hydrolyzable monomer units, wherein: (a) the nonhydrolyzable monomer units result from polymerization of nonhydrolyzable olefin monomers; and (b) the hydrolyzable monomer units represent about 0.1 mole % to about 50 mole % of the copolymer and each provide a cleavable linkage in the polymer backbone that hydrolyzes in aqueous base and/or aqueous acid to cleave the polymer into lower molecular weight segments, wherein the hydrolyzable monomer units result from polymerization of hydrolyzable diolefin or polyolefin monomers containing at least one such cleavable linkage, and further wherein the cleavable linkage is selected from enol ether, acyclic acetal, anhydride, carbonate, N-substituted amido, N-substituted urethane, N-substituted imino, imido, substituted imido, N,N-disubstituted hydrazo, thioester, phosphonic ester, sulfonic ester, ortho ester, ether, thio, and siloxyl.