The use of environmentally benign coatings and resist materials has come to attention in the past decades. Besides established polymeric materials poly(vinyl alcohol) is of major interest, as this polymer is water soluble and regarded as safe for packaging technologies as well as for biomedical applications. New methods for the crosslinking of PVA by radiation were investigated in this work, with emphasis on non-toxicity and biocompatibility of the employed crosslinking agents and cleavage products. Additionally a number of functionalised particles such as cation exchanged montmorillonites were prepared and characterised. The aim was to immobilise functional groups at the surface of inorganic particles that capable of initiating crosslinking reactions. Furthermore these additives were employed to prepare organic-inorganic composite materials with poly(vinyl alcohol) as matrix polymer. The distribution of the modified particles was investigated by microscopic methods, while optical spectroscopy was employed to observe covalent crosslink formation, due to heat treatment of UV light exposure. Additionally covalent crosslink formation and polymer-filler interactions were investigated by determination of the swelling behaviour in deionised water.