Preparation and adsorption properties of magnetic CoFe2O4–chitosan composite microspheres

Abstract

Magnetic chitosan microspheres made from novel polymer materials show outstanding applied characteristics. Magnetic chitosan microspheres are rather cheap, non-toxic, tasteless, alkali resistant, corrosion resistant, easily degradable, easily recyclable, and so on. It can be widely used in many fields. In this paper, magnetic CoFe2O4/chitosan core-shell microspheres are prepared by means of emulsification cross-linking technique using CoFe2O4 as core and glutaric dialdehyde as crosslinking agent. The results demonstrated that the different calcining temperature of magnetic (CoFe2O4) particles, CoFe2O4/chitosan ratio and stirring time of the suspension medium are the most effective parameters that control the size, size distribution, morphology and magnetism of the described microspheres. Finally, the size, morphology and chemical structure of the prepared materials are studied by different methods. The results show that the optimal calcination temperature of magnetic particles is 700°C, the optimal ratio of CoFe2O4/chitosan is 1: 1, ultrasonic dispersion time is 30 min. The prepared chitosan magnetic microspheres have small size and are well dispersed when the stirring time is 3 h. The prepared magnetic chitosan microspheres are well shaped spheres with a diameter from 1 to 50 μm, in which CoFe2O4 particles are dispersed uniformly. The magnetic chitosan microspheres show excellent magnetic response and have good adsorption characteristics.