and acetal groups have been identified as candidates meeting the above criteria for the purposes of this invention the term 34 acetal 34 refers to the 1 1 dialkoxy group as depicted in fig1 3 where r and r 39 can be alkyl aryl aralkyl or hydrogen the general use of the term 34 acetal 34 includes ketals where r and r 39 is equivalent to alkyl aryl or aralkyl acetals where r is equivalent to alkyl aryl or aralkyl and r 39 h and formals where r and r 39 h as disclosed in march j advanced organic chemistry 3d ed wiley interscience 329 331 1985 the known organic chemistry of ketals and acetals indicates that they are exceedingly stable to hydrolysis in the absence of acids but break down readily in acid even weak acids ketals and acetals are not subject to reactions similar to those of epoxy groups and thus an acetal or a ketal link should not be affected by the curing reaction of the epoxy matrix acetals can be hydrolyzed in acidic aqueous solutions but they are also susceptible to trans etherification under acidic conditions because the network fragments are organic solvent soluble and not water soluble it has been found that the best solvents for dissolution of the cleavable networks are those containing an alcohol and some organic acid such as methanesulfonic acid or p toluenesulfonic acid it then becomes possible to use an alcohol as both the solvent and the reactant which eliminates the necessity of adding water control of the degradability stability of the compositions with respect to ambient moisture is achieved pursuant to.