Effects of surfactant and polymerization method on the synthesis of magnetic colloidal polymeric nanoparticles

The addition of superparamagnetic iron nanoparticles into polystyrene matrix allows for the modification of the physical properties as well as the implementation of new features in the hybrid nanomaterials. These materials have excellent potential for biomedical and bioengineering applications. Nevertheless, it is necessary to achieve a good dispersion of magnetic nanoparticles for its successful incorporation into polymer particles. This can be obtained through the use of a stabilizer, which provides stability against aggregation. In this work, magnetic nanoparticles were dispersed using different stabilizers. Subsequently, ferrofluids stabilized using the mixture of ABEX/IGEPAL and acrylic acid (AA) were used to synthesize PS-Fe₃O₄ nanocomposites, through miniemulsion and emulsion polymerization conventional techniques. Semicontinuous and batch processes were compared, by varying surfactants and their concentrations. The PS-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were characterized by dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Magnetic nanoparticle dispersions show better results when the anionic and nonionic surfactants are used as a mixture rather than when used alone. Results of DLS showed that the semicontinuous process allowed obtaining monodisperse materials, whereas polidisperse systems are generated in batch process. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of magnetite and polystyrene in the nanocomposites. PS-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles showed superparamagnetic behavior with final magnetization of around 0.01 emu/g and low coercivity, properties that make them suitable for applications in wide fields of technology. Particle size (Dz), was lower than 300 nm in all cases. Moreover, the use of AA as stabilizer allows enhancing the PS-Fe₃O₄ composite properties. These findings showed that particle size, morphology, and agglomeration are directly influenced by the concentration and the type of surfactant employed.