Magnetic PolyHIPE Composites With Activated Carbon and Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

This paper investigated the effects of simultaneous incorporation of activated carbon (ATC, 1 wt%) and iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles (5, 10, and 15 wt%) on physical, thermal, mechanical, magnetic, and adsorption properties of poly-high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) composites. The addition of 1% ATC-5% Fe 3 O 4 and 1% ATC-10% Fe 3 O 4 into the polymer matrices led to the polyHIPE composites with the improvement of physical, thermal, and mechanical properties, whereas the excess amount of Fe 3 O 4 at 1% ATC-15% Fe 3 O 4 caused structural instability and consequently resulted in the poor physical and mechanical properties. The 1% ATC-10% Fe 3 O 4 composites with the compromised properties by having the surface area of 768 m 2 /g, onset decomposition temperature (T d ) of 325 °C, elastic modulus of 10.45 MPa, crushing strength of 0.59 MPa, and saturated magnetization (M s ) of 11.1 emu/g possessed high iron(III) ions (Fe 3+ ) adsorption efficiency at 86.4% which is promising to be developed for heavy metal ion adsorption applications. These results suggest that the properties of magnetic polyHIPE composites can be improved by the synergistic incorporation of ATC and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles.