Living anionic polymerization of silyl-protected hydroxystyrenes at room temperature

Polyhydroxystyrene (PHOST) and its derivatives are technologically important as resist materials for microlithography. We have applied the modified Nakahama procedure to the synthesis of well-defined poly(p-hydroxy-α-methylstyrene) and also utilized the living anionic polymerization technique to study the effect of polymer ends on the sensitivity of a chemical amplification resist. An chemically amplified positive resist based on PHOST prepared by the living anionic technique has been also reported. In this paper is described a simple procedure of living anionic polymerization of p- and mSOST with sec-butyllithium (sBuLi) at room temperature, which makes use of cyclohexane as the solvent. The advantage of living polymerization at room temperature has been well demonstrated by the group transfer polymerization.