Poly(ethylene oxide) radical macroinitiators with built-in benzopinacolate groups were prepared by two different methods: the first one involves a hydrosilylation reaction between-alpha, omega-difunctional polyethylene oxide (PEO) precursors and a difunctional benzopinacolate; due to the presence of a spacer group on the benzopinacolate compound the resulting segmented PEO is rather close to a block-copolymer. The second method is based on the general duplication reaction of benzophenone groups fitted at both chain ends of a PEO precursor.