Photosensitive element for producing printing plates or resist images

Claim 1

In a photosensitive recording element which is suitable for the production of negative-working printing plates or resist images and possesses a photopolymerizable recording layer which is applied to a dimensionally stable base, which layer can be developed in an aqueous alkaline medium and which layer contains a polymeric binder, the improvement which comprises: using as the polymeric binder, one or more film-forming copolymers which are insoluble in water but soluble or dispersible in aqueous alkaline solutions and consists essentially of from 10 to 50% by weight of one or more N-vinylamides, from 5 to 30% by weight of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid or a mixture of acrylic acid and methacrylic acid and from 30 to 80% by weight of one or more comonomers from the group consisting of the vinylaromatics and esters of acrylic acid or methacrylic acid with monoalkanols of 1 to 8 carbon atoms and from 0.2 to 5% by weight of at least one copolymerizable, olefinically unsaturated organic compound which contains basic nitrogen atoms and has a pK a >4, selected from the group consisting of compounds of the formulae ##STR3## where n is from 2 to 6, R is hydrogen or methyl and R 1 and R 2 are identical or different and are each hydrogen, a straight-chain or branched alkyl or hydroxyalkyl radical of 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a straight-chain or branched hydroxyalkyl radical of 1 l to 6 carbon atoms whose hydroxyl groups are etherified with alkanols of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or cycloakyl of 5 or 6 carbon atoms, or R 1 and R 2 together form a five-membered or six-membered ring which may contain a further hetero atom, N-vinylimidazole and 2-methyl-1-vinylimidazole as copolymerized units.