A versatile "click" chemistry precursor of functional polystyrene nanoparticles.

Functional nanoparticles (NPs) are becoming important building blocks in the emerging fi elds of nanomedicine, nanolithography and nanoelectronics, among others. [ 1 ] Several unexpected nanoscale effects have been discovered for these new materials in recent years. [ 2–4 ] Useful synthetic routes to single-molecule polymeric NPs in the 2–15 nm size range with well-defi ned arrangement of functional groups are certainly scarce in spite of the enormous potential predicted for all-polymer nanocomposites. [ 5 ]