Reversible thermally induced arm release from a star polymer morphology was prepared which consists of furanic functional core and maleimide functional arm which are attached or detached via Diels-Alder (DA) reversible reactions. This approach allows the reversible bonding and deboncling at 35-40 degrees C (DA) and 90-100 degrees C (retro-DA). The covalent reversibility of this process consists of 7 cycles of the DA and retro-DA reactions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.