Study on Fe3O4/polyaniline electromagnetic composite hollow spheres prepared against sulfonated polystyrene colloid template

Abstract

Fe3O4/polyaniline (PANI) composite hollow spheres were prepared by using sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) microspheres as templates. The sulfonic acid groups were applied to induce absorbing Fe3O4 nanoparticle, and subsequently, conductive PANI was grown. Finally, the polystyrene cores were selectively dissolved to yield composite hollow microspheres with electromagnetic properties. The analysis results indicated that the adsorption of Fe3O4 on template core by electrostatic interaction resulted in magnetic composite microspheres. The conductivity of composite hollow spheres was remarkably increased after polyvinylpyrrolidone modification which favored the growth of PANI on SPS/Fe3O4 and enhanced the integrity of hollow microspheres. The saturated magnetization of the composite hollow microspheres was tuned from 2.7 to 9.1 emu/g, and the conductivity was in the range from 10−2 to 100 S/cm.