The ring-opening polymerization of lactide with commercially available Bredereck-type reagents in the presence or absence of alcohol initiators was carried out affording polylactide with controlled molecular weight and narrow polydispersities. An anionic mechanism involving heterolytic cleavage to alkoxides is proposed, where these reagents function as latent anionic initiators for the ring-opening polymerization of lactide.Keywords: anionic polymerization; Brederecks reagent; carbene; organic catalysis; polylactide There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the development of organocatalytic reactions. Catalysis with simple organic molecules can provide an attractive alternative to organometallic catalysis, particularly in situations where residual metals or ligands compromise the purity or end-use of the product. Representative recent examples include MacMillans elegant studies of highly enantioselective organocatalytic inter-and intramolecular Diels-Alders reactions, 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, 1,4-conjugate Friedel-Crafts additions as well as the alkylation of indoles. [1,2,3] Proline has proven to be an efficient organic catalyst for a variety of reactions such as the Mannich reaction to generate precursors to b-lactams, [3] and several groups have reported effective nonenzymatic catalysts for the kinetic resolution of secondary alcohols using both "planar-chiral" phosphines [4] and amine catalyst frameworks. [2,5] Miller has devised several new functional peptides that catalyze the kinetic resolution of selected secondary alcohols [6] as well as a variety of other transformations. [7] Other noteworthy examples of organic catalysts include those of Fuji, [8] Spivey, [9] Oriyama, [10] Vedejs, [11] Breslow, [12] Enders, [13] and Rovis [14] as well as extensive studies of biocatalysts.[15]We were recently challenged to develop effective organic polymerization reactions in an effort to develop new materials for microelectronics, where residual metals must be avoided. During our initial survey of a variety of organic catalysts for the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclic esters we showed that nucleophilic catalysts such as tertiary amines, [16] phosphines [17] and stabilized singlet carbenes were effective polymerization catalysts for strained cyclic esters.[18] Of these, the N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) were by far the most active. Extensions of this work demonstrated that NHCs are also potent transesterification catalysts [19] for a variety of esters and alcohols. Nevertheless, while NHCs are excellent transesterification catalysts, the convenience of these species as catalysts is compromised by their sensitivity to air and moisture, necessitating airsensitive techniques. To this end, we have focused on strategies for generating the reactive N-heterocyclic carbenes in situ, [20] including the deprotonation of imidazolium salts (1), [21] or the thermolysis of adducts (2). [22] Inspired by some of the original work of Arduengo, Wanzlick, Lappert and Bredereck, [23,24,25] we reasoned that...