Latent, thermally activated organic catalysts for the on-demand living polymerization of lactide

(Chemical Equation Presented) It's all about control: Alcohol adducts of stable N-heterocyclic carbenes function as excellent single-component catalysts/initiators for the ring-opening polymerization of lactide (see scheme). This polymerization can be reversibly terminated simply by modulating the temperature. The use of multifunctional macroinitiators enables the synthesis of more complex polymer architectures. © 2005 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.