Encapsulation of nanosized magnetic iron oxide by polyacrylamide via inverse miniemulsion polymerization

Polyacrylamide particles containing nanosized magnetic iron oxide were prepared via inverse miniemulsion polymerization in this paper. The particle size of magnetic polymeric particles is about 100 nm, and these particles are superparamagnetic. The relative parameters of the miniemulsion polymerization, such as the surfactant content, ultrasonicating time, Fe3O4 and N, N'-methylene bis acrylamide content, were studied in detail. The iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The final magnetic polymeric particles were characterized by TEM, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, magnetization analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.