Ethoxylation of Phenols Catalyzed by Metal‐Free Lewis Pairs: Living/Controlled Polymerization in a Slow‐Initiation Mode^†

Main observation and conclusion Phenols, instead of conventional alcoholic compounds, are used to initiate ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide in bulk at room temperature in cooperation with the recently prevailing bicomponent metal‐free catalyst comprising an organobase and triethylborane. Experimental and DFT calculation results both point out that due to the lower nucleophilicity of the initiating...