Polyester nitrile N-oxides for click reactions synthesized with nitroalkane precursors as the initiator

Polyesters that have a nitrile N-oxide function at the initiation end were prepared and applied to a catalyst-free click reaction for star polymer synthesis. They were obtained by an initial living ring-opening polymerization of lactide and lactones with an alcohol-bearing nitroalkane as the initiator, followed by conversion of the nitroalkane to a nitrile N-oxide function. The resulting polymer and block copolymer nitrile N-oxides showed very high reactivity toward a hexakis(alkenyl) core to give the corresponding star polymers via complete conversion.