INCORPORATION OF GLYCINE RESIDUES IN EVEN-EVEN NYLONS DISRUPTS THEIR CHARACTERISTIC ALL-TRANS CONFORMATION

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 acti ve ester method. The structure and morphology of lamellar crystals hav e also been investigated by using transmission electron microscopy, se lected-area electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction. The results in dicate that at room temperature the structure of these nylons is diffe rent from the typical forms (alpha and beta) of even-even polyamides. Observations described in this paper are complementary to previous wor k about the incorporation of glycine units in nylons derived from omeg a-amino acids and indicate that glycine residues always tend to adopt their characteristic polyglycine TI conformation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.