Elaboration of perfect core-shell submicronic magnetic latexes from oil in water ferrofluid droplets for bionanotechnology applications

The aim of this paper is to present a new route leading to highly magnetic submicronic latex particles. This was performed using oil in water magnetic droplets as a seed for emulsion polymerization process with hydrophobic monomer. After a short study related to adsorption and desorption of amphiphilic polymer onto ferrofluid droplets, our work consisted in the determination of parameters which could have a rule in the core-shell morphology setting: the cross-linker ratio. Finally, these latex particles are characterized in terms of colloidal characteristics, chemical composition and intrinsic properties. The resulted particles present; submicronic diameter, high magnetic content (around 60 wt.%) and well-defined morphology. When a water-soluble initiator (potassium persulfate) was used together with a crosslinking agent (divinylbenzene) in the polymerization recipe, a more homogeneous core-shell morphology was reached.