Multifunctional Fe3O4 nanoparticles-embedded poly(styrene)/poly(thiophene) core/shell composite particles

• We report a facile method to fabricate Fe3O4 NPs-PSt/PTh core/shell composite particles.
• Core/shell composite particles were fabricated via miniemulsion and oxidative polymerizations.
• Resulted particles exhibits combination of luminescence, magnetic and electrical conductivity.
• The electrical conductivity was 10 times improved by the combination of Fe3O4 NPs and PTh.

Fe3O4 nanoparticle-embedded poly(styrene)/poly(thiophene) core/shell composite particles (Fe3O4 NPs-PSt/PTh) with multi-functionality (i.e., magnetic, electrical conducting properties, and photoluminescence) were successfully fabricated via stepwise polymerizations. First, Fe3O4 NPs-PSt composite particles were prepared in a miniemulsion polymerization. Then, the Fe3O4 NPs-PSt/PTh core/shell composite particles were prepared by oxidative seeded emulsion polymerization of thiophene in the presence of FeCl3/H2O2 as a redox catalyst. The composite particles were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy to confirm the composite structure. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis confirmed the core/shell morphology of the Fe3O4 NPs-PSt/PTh. Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer analyses confirmed that the composite particles exhibited fluorescence and superparamagnetic properties, respectively. Electrical conductivity of the composite particles was measured by a 4-point probe method and the results revealed that the electrical conductivity of embedded Fe3O4 NPs increased 10 folds greater than that of the pristine PSt/PTh core/shell particles.

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