Evaluation of the potential of magnetic/thermoresponsive chitosan microspheres decorated with poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) in oily water treatment
Chitosan; magnetic; thermoresponsive; microsphere; PNIPAM; cross-linked
Smart microspheres capable of responding to magnetic fields and temperature changes were prepared by encapsulating magnetic nanoparticles into cross-linked chitosan microspheres with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brushes (MCM-PNIPAM). While most studies have focused on the graft copolymerization reaction in solution between chitosan and NIPAM, we investigated successful grafting onto surface cross-linked polysaccharide particles. The synthetized smart microspheres were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results showed that the hybrids are multicore particles consisting of well-dispersed magnetic nanoparticles homogeneously distributed within the chitosan matrix. The saturated magnetizations of MCM-PNIPAM 1 and MCM-PNIPAM 2 developed in this study were 2.35 and 2.17 emu/g, respectively. The thermoresponsive behavior of both MCM-PNIPAMs was confirmed by the sharp transition phase on DSC curves. The main finding of these modified microspheres is the development of new potential applications in different areas, including the biomedical and environmental field.