Encapsulation of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles with poly(methyl methacrylate) via surface functionalized thiol-lactam initiated radical polymerization

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was grafted onto Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) by using a thiol-lactam initiated radical polymerization (TLIRP) via grafting from approach. The surface of the MNPs was treated with the (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane coupling agent to give thiol functionalized MNPs (MNPs-SH). Subsequently, the polymerization of MMA performed in the presence of the MNPs-SH and butyrolactam efficiently afforded PMMA-g-MNPs. The grafting of PMMA on the surface of the MNPs was investigated by FT-IR, 1H NMR, TGA, XPS, and EDX analyses. The morphology of the core/shell type PMMA-g-MNPs was confirmed by HR-TEM. GPC analysis showed that the molecular weight of PMMA and monomer conversion increased with the reaction time. The amount of the grafted polymer on the surface of the MNPs was found to be ca. 82.5% as estimated from TGA analysis. The MNPs and PMMA-g-MNPs were subjected to magnetic property investigation by SQUID, and the PMMA-g-MNPs showed relatively high saturated magnetization (53.3 emu/g) without any remanence or coercivity, which made the nanocomposites easily separable from solid–liquid phases suggesting their superparamagnetic character. The magnetic nanocomposites had an exceptionally good dispersibility in organic solvents as demonstrated by UV–Vis spectroscopy as well as time-dependent digital photographic monitoring.