One step grafting of iron phthalocyanine containing flexible chains on Fe sub(3)O sub(4) nanoparticles towards high performance polymer magnetic composites

To develop high-performance inorganic particles/polymer composites, the interfacial interaction and dispersion of inorganic particles are the two essential issues to be considered. Herein, we report an effective approach to graft iron phthalocyanine containing flexible chains (NP-ph) on Fe sub(3)O sub(4) nanoparticles (NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4)). The hybrids were monodispersed solid nanoparticles with the average diameter of about 250 nm. About 16.8% of the phthalocyanine oligomer was incorporated into the resulting NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4) nanoparticles. The NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4) nanoparticles were subsequently used as the novel filler for preparation of high performance poly(arylene ether nitrile)s (PAEN) composites. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation showed that the NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4) nanoparticles present better dispersion and interfacial compatibility with PAEN matrix than that of raw Fe sub(3)O sub(4), which was further confirmed by rheological study. Consequently, the improved thermal stability and enhanced mechanical properties were obtained from composites using NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4). Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) results showed that the prepared PAEN composites exhibited higher saturation magnetization and soft magnetic properties. Meanwhile, the saturation magnetization (Ms) of the PAEN/NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4) composite films increased with the increase of the hybrid nanoparticles loading. Thus, the PAEN/NP-ph[at]Fe sub(3)O sub(4) composite would find potential applications in organic magnetic films fields due to their high thermal stability, excellent flexibility and tunable magnetic properties.