Toward an easy access to dendrimer-like poly(ethylene oxide)s

Dendrimer-like poly(ethylene oxide)s (PEOs) is synthesized by an iterative divergent approach combining anionic polymerization of ethylene oxide from multi-hydroxylated precursors and branching reactions of PEO chain ends. Partial deprotonation of the hydroxyls is found to be crucial for a successful polymerization of ethylene oxide at room temperature using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a solvent.