Encapsulation of ferromagnetic iron oxide particles by polyester resin

Abstract

Magnetic iron oxide (maghemite, Fe3O4) particles were encapsulated with polyester resin. The resulting magnetic powders were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fritsch particle sizer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements. FTIR and XRD confirmed the presence of iron oxide in polymer phase. The TGA and DSC measurements indicated the magnetic polymer particles have more than 50% iron oxide content and high thermal stability. SEM revealed that all maghemite particles were embedded in the polymer phase. The size distribution analysis of prepared magnetic particles has shown that the mean diameter of the bare iron oxide particles slightly increased with encapsulation. According to our magnetometry data, shape of the loops evidences the ferromagnetic character of the material and no evidence of superparamagnetism was seen.