Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Elastomer based PEG-Coated Fe3O4 from Natural Iron Sand

Magnetic elastomer nanocomposite based PEG-coated Fe3O4 with silicone rubber binder have been prepared from natural iron-sand by using coprecipitation method. The samples were characterized by using X-ray Diffractometer, X-ray Fluorescence, Fourier Transform Infra-Red, tensile strength test, and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer to analyze the physical and magnetic properties. We observed that all samples were formed by single phase cubic spinel magnetite (Fe3O4) crystalline structure. The atomic bonding analysis by FTIR showed that the C-O-C and C-H ordering were understood as the PEG - Fe3O4 bonding characteristics. We have observed that the Young modulus of elastomer based PEG-coated Fe3O4 slightly decreased compared to the natural iron-sand based elastomer. The magnetic properties of PEG-coated Fe3O4 were known to be magnetically softer with the lowest coercivity without losing its magnetization saturation value. We propose that the PEG-coated Fe3O4 is a promising candidate to be applied as magnetorheological elastomer due to a good mechanical and magnetic characteristic and also promising as microwave absorbing materials.