Synthesis and characterization of poly(3-thiophene acetic acid)/Fe3O4 nanocomposite

Poly(3-thiophene acetic acid)/Fe3O4 nanocomposite is synthesized by the precipitation of Fe3O4 in the presence of poly(3-thiophene acetic acid) (P3TAA). Structural, surface, morphological, thermal properties and conductivity characterization/evaluation of the nanocomposite were performed by XRD, FT-IR, TEM, TGA. and conductivity measurements, respectively. The capping of P3TAA around Fe3O4 nanoparticles was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy, the interaction being via bridging oxygens of the carboxylate and the nanoparticle surface through bidentate binding. The crystallite and particle size were obtained as 9 +/- 2 nm and 11 +/- 1 nm from XRD line profile fitting and TEM image analysis, respectively, which reveal nearly single crystalline nature of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. Magnetization measurements reveal that P3TAA coated magnetite particles do not saturate at higher fields. There is no coercivity and remanence revealing superparamagnetic character. Magnetic particle size calculated from the theoretical fitting as 9.1 nm which coincides the values determined from TEM micrographs and XRD line profile fitting. The comparison to the TEM particle size reveals slightly modified magnetically dead nanoparticle surface. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.