Synthesis and characterization of cashew gum/acrylic acid nanoparticles

This paper describes the preparation of nanoparticles from cashew gum (CG) and acrylic acid (AA) by free radical polymerization using cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator. The yields of the nanoparticles (NP) obtained by varying the RCG/AA from 0.5 to 2.0 were between 65 and 40%. The FT-IR spectra of the NP samples showed bands characteristic of the cashew gum spectrum and a new band at 1560 cm− 1 assigned to the stretching vibration of COO− groups of polyacrylic acid. On increasing the RCG/AA from 0.5 to 2.0 an increase in particle size was observed. The NP with an RCG/AA of 0.5 were smaller and had higher storage stability than the NP with an RCG/AA of 1.0 or 2.0. The increase in RCG/AA had no significant effect on the zeta potential of the NP in water. The NP were dried and re-dissolved in water to observe the effect of freeze-drying on particle size. For the NP with an RCG/AA of 0.5 an increase in particle size was observed from 71 to 402 nm, however, for the NP with an RCG/AA of 1.0 or 2.0 a small variation in particle diameter was noted. The behavior of the CG/AA NP was also found to be pH sensitive.