Water-dispersible, polymer-wrapped nanocrystals are highly sought after for use in biology and chemistry, from nanomedicine to catalysis. The hydrophobicity of their native ligand shell, however, is a significant barrier to their aqueous transfer as single particles. Ligand exchange with hydrophilic small molecules or, alternatively, wrapping over native ligands with amphiphilic polymers is widely employed for aqueous transfer; however, purification can be quite cumbersome. We report here a general two-step method whereby reactive stripping of native ligands is first carried out using trialkyloxonium salts to reveal a bare nanocrystal surface. This is followed by chemically directed immobilization of a hydrophilic polymer coating. Polyacrylic acids, with side-chain grafts or functional end groups, were found to be extremely versatile in this regard. The resulting polymer-wrapped nanocrystal dispersions retained much of the compact size of their bare nanocrystal precursors, highlighting the unique role of monomer side-chain functionality to serve as effective, conformal ligation motifs. As such, they are well poised for applications where tailored chemical functionality at the nanocrystal's periphery or improved access to their surfaces is desirable. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012