5-Hydroxy-2-nitrobenzyl alcohol may be used in the synthesis of 5-(2′-(dimethylamino)ethoxy)-2-nitrobenzyl alcohol.It may be used as difunctional photo-responsive initiator in the synthesis of thermo-responsive and photo-cleavable amphiphilic block copolymers containing photodegradable linkers as junction points between hydrophilic and hydrophobic chains.