Controlled preparation of Fe₃O₄/P (St-MA) magnetic composite microspheres by DPE method

In this work, controlled radical polymerization based on 1, 1-diphenylethylene (DPE method) was used to prepare magnetic composite microspheres. By this method, Fe₃O₄/P (St-MA) magnetic composite microspheres were prepared via copolymerization of styrene (St) and maleic anhydride (MA) using DPE as radical control agent in the presence of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The structure and properties of the magnetic composite microspheres obtained were characterized by IR, ¹H-NMR, SEC-MALLS, TEM, TGA, VSM, DLS and other instruments. It was found that the DPE method allows the controlled preparation of magnetic composite microspheres, and Fe₃O₄/ P(St-MA) microspheres possess perfect sphere-shaped morphology, homogeneous particle size, carboxylic surface, superparamagnetism with a saturation magnetization of 14.704 emu/g, and magnetic content with a value of 25%.