Structure and magnetic properties of SiO2/PCL novel sol–gel organic–inorganic hybrid materials

Abstract

Abstract Organic–inorganic nanocomposite materials have been synthesized via sol–gel. They consist of an inorganic SiO 2 matrix, in which different percentages of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) have been incorporated. The formation of H-bonds among the carbonyl groups of the polymer chains and Si–OH group of the inorganic matrix has been proved by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis and has been confirmed by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis highlighted the amorphous nature of the synthesized materials. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrograph and atomic force microscope (AFM) topography showed their homogeneous morphology and nanostructure nature. Considering the opportunity to synthesize these hybrid materials under microgravity conditions by means of magnetic levitation, superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry has been used to quantify their magnetic susceptibility. This measure has shown that the SiO 2 /PCL hybrid materials are diamagnetic and that their diamagnetic susceptibility is independent of temperature and increases with the PCL amount.