Effects of external factors on the arrangement of plate-liked Fe2O3 nanoparticles in cellulose scaffolds
Highlights
► Different preparation methods were performed to clarify the distribution of Fe2O3 nanoparticles in cellulose matrix. ► A weak static and rotating magnetic field led to obvious different alignments of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles in the cellulose matrix. ► The uniaxial drawing destroyed the regular distribution of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles, changing the morphology of the nanoparticles from plate-like to rod-like.
Introduction
Composites with aligned structures are of interests in a wide range of applications such as organic electronics (Gu, Zheng, Zhang, & Xu, 2004), microfluidics (Quake & Scherer, 2000), molecular filtration (Yamaguchi et al., 2004), nanowires (Adelung et al., 2004), and tissue engineering (Baker et al., 2010, Chen et al., 2011). The aligned structure of the composites often has anisotropic properties (Akima et al., 2006, Bliznyuk et al., 2005, Kim, 2005, Prasse et al., 2003, Shi et al., 2005, Tai et al., 2005, Tezvergil et al., 2003). The alignment of an object in a polymer matrix has attracted much attention. It has been reported that electric field is an effective route to make materials with an aligned structure, and it has been successfully accomplished with a variety of different structures including nanoparticles (Bezryadin, Dekker, & Schmid, 1997), nanowires (Smith et al., 2000), fibers (Takahashi, Murayama, Higuchi, Awano, & Yonetake, 2006), layered silicates (Koerner, Jacobs, Tomlin, Busbee, & Vaia, 2004), and carbon nanotubes (Chen et al., 2001, Kamat et al., 2004, Martin et al., 2005). Homogeneous magnetic field was also used to achieve controlled orientation of particles in polymer matrixes, and these oriented particles made the composite materials had anisotropy properties (Eguchi et al., 2008, Majewski et al., 2010, Porion et al., 2010, Shaver et al., 2009, Wang et al., 2011). Shear stress was another field that could effectively promote orientation of the dispersed particles in polymer nanocomposites, and could produce long-range in-plane order quickly (Angelescu et al., 2004, Dykes et al., 2010, Hong et al., 2009). Compared with the orientation of spherical and one-dimensional objects in polymer matrix, little attention has been paid on the alignment of two-dimensional shaped (such as plate-like) magnetic nanoparticles in a polymer matrix. This is a more complicated process for the investigation of the magnetic nanoparticles with inherent magnetic and morphological anisotropies in a polymer matrix.
In our previous work, a facile method for the synthesis of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the cellulose matrix was developed, and magnetic cellulose composite materials such as films (Liu et al., 2011a, Liu et al., 2011b, Liu et al., 2006, Zhou et al., 2009), fibers (Liu et al., 2008a, Liu et al., 2008b), and microspheres (Luo et al., 2009a, Luo and Zhang, 2009b, Luo and Zhang, 2010) with novel properties were prepared successfully. Interestingly, the synthesized Fe2O3 nanoparticles in the cellulose films were plate-like, and they were self-aligned regularly in the cellulose matrix when it was dried at ambient conditions, leading to the composite films exhibit obvious magnetic anisotropy. This result was totally different from those reported works about the preparation of orientated distribution of inorganic in polymer matrix, and the distribution of inorganic nanoparticles in polymer matrix was often randomly. It is well known that exterior force field was often must be applied for any attempt to align inorganic components in a polymer matrix. In order to clarify this interesting phenomenon, different conditions including low temperature, static and rotating magnetic, as well as uniaxial drawing have been used for the preparation of the Fe2O3/cellulose composite films in present work. The effects of a weak static magnetic field and rotating magnetic field on the distributions of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), HRTEM, and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). This work provided useful information dealing with changing the morphology of Fe2O3 nanoparticles and rearranging Fe2O3 nanoparticles inside the cellulose films by controlling the conditions outside.
Section snippets
Materials
Cotton linter pulp (α-cellulose >95%) was provided by Hubei Chemical Fiber Group Co., Ltd. (Xiangfan, China), its viscosity-average molecular weight (Mη) was determined to be 1.33 × 105. Other chemical reagents with analytical grade were supplied by the Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd. (China) and used without further purification.
Preparation of composite films
Cellulose (cotton linter pulp) was dissolved directly by using NaOH/urea aqueous solution pre-cooled to −12 °C. The obtained cellulose solution (4 wt%) was
Results and discussion
The crystallite phase of the plate-like Fe2O3 nanoparticles that were in situ synthesized in the cellulose scaffolds was γ-Fe2O3, as well as the structure and properties of the composite film have been investigated in our previous works (Liu et al., 2006, Liu et al., 2011a, Liu et al., 2011b). Interestingly, the Fe2O3 nanoparticles were self-aligned regularly in the cellulose matrix, and the composite films had an obvious magnetic anisotropy. It was totally different from the reported works
Conclusions
Different preparation conditions could affect the structure and properties of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles synthesized in the cellulose composite films. The Fe2O3 nanoparticles in the cellulose matrix were plate-like and their distribution was randomly before drying. A weak magnetic field including static and rotating magnetic field has an obvious influence on the distribution of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles, but the distribution of the magnetic nanoparticles in the cellulose matrix was different. The
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2010CB732203) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (51003043), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP11107), as well as the goal-oriented project (JUSRP30905) of Jiangnan University.
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