Living Anionic Polymerization of Isocyanates

We have identified sodium benzanilide (Na-BA), sodium diphenyl amine (Na-DPA) and sodium deoxibenzoin (Na-DB) as very efficient initiators for the living anionic polymerization of HIC. It has a slow propagation rate with the additive function of chain end protection, offering in the process a perfect control over MW and MWD. The well-defined amphiphilic coil-rod, coil-rod-coil, and rod-coil-rod block-copolymers of PHIC and P2VP with controlled architecture have been synthesized for the first time with ${\sim}100\;%$ yields. The resulting block copolymers showed lamellar film, donuts, solid and hollow micelles, by simply varying the solvents and the block compositions.