Polyfurfural (PF) nanospheres have been successfully synthesized by interfacial polymerization (IP). TEM, FT-IR, GPC, XRD and TG-DTA are used to characterize the nanospheres with regard to their morphologies and structures. The effects of the concentrations of monomer, catalyst and emulsifier on the polymer nanosphere are investigated. The results show that PF has the irregular crystalline structure and the distribution of the nanospheres size is narrow and uniform with the diameter 100 nm when emulsifier concentration is round critical micellization concentration, monomer concentration 3～5 mol/L and catalyst concentration around 10 mol/L. At the optimum conditions, with M_w＝2451 and the narrow molecular weight distribution, PF nanosphere material has been obtained. PF has a very good flexibility which entrust the processibility to the polymer. For the interfacial self-assembly polymerization, its conditions are mild and it is easy to handle and purify the products without employing/removing template approach and the yield is also high.

Key words: polyfurfural, nanosphere, interfacial polymerization, self-assemble, characterization