Aqueous Ring‐Opening Polymerization‐Induced Self‐Assembly (ROPISA) of N‐carboxyanhydrides

Reported here is the first aqueous ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs) using alpha-amino-poly(ethylene oxide) as a macroinitiator to protect the NCA monomers from hydrolysis through spontaneous in situ self-assembly (ISA). This ROPISA process affords well-defined amphiphilic diblock copolymers that simultaneously form original needle-like nanoparticles.