Facile synthesis and characterization of poly (o-phenylenediamine) submicrospheres doped with glycine

Poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) submicrospheres with an average diameter of about 400nm have been successfully synthesized in glycine solution by simply mixing o-phenylenediamine (oPD) and ammonium persulfate at room temperature. The macromolecular structure, crystallinity and thermal stability of the as-prepared product were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results showed that the doped PoPD is partly crystal and exhibits good thermal stability. The formation mechanism of the PoPD submicrospheres was investigated by monitoring the morphology development with the polymerization time, indicating that growth of the submicrospheres is a self-assembly process. This method is facile and applicable for the large scale fabrication of PoPD submicrospheres.