Incorporation of glycine residues in even–even nylons disrupts their characteristic all- trans conformation

Abstract

A series of regular polymers derived from the inclusion of glycine in even–even nylons (2,4, 2,6, 4,4 and 4,6) has been prepared by the active ester method. The structure and morphology of lamellar crystals have also been investigated by using transmission electron microscopy, selected-area electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction. The results indicate that at room temperature the structure of these nylons is different from the typical forms ( α and β) of even–even polyamides. Observations described in this paper are complementary to previous work about the incorporation of glycine units in nylons derived from ω-amino acids and indicate that glycine residues always tend to adopt their characteristic polyglycine II conformation.