Preparation and characterization of magnetic γ-Al2O3 ceramic nanocomposite particles with variable Fe3O4 content and modification with epoxide functional polymer

Porous γ-alumina (γ-Al2O3) is one of widely used ceramic materials. To maximize the application potentials attempt was made to prepare multifunctional γ-Al2O3 ceramic composite particles following magnetization and then seeded polymerization with epoxide functional glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). γ-Al2O3 particles were first prepared by a modified sol-gel approach and then doped with variable content Fe3O4 nanoparticles. At higher Fe3O4 content the magnetite nanoparticles were oriented into needle like hairy structure basically grown from the surface of γ-Al2O3 particles. Before the seeded polymerization the magnetic γ-Al2O3 particles were modified with SiO2 layer to improve the compatibility with the PGMA layer. The produced multifunctional ceramic particles were named as γ-Al2O3/Fe3O4/SiO2/PGMA nanocomposite because one of the phases constituting Fe3O4 was in nano-size range. The produced nanocomposite particles possessed superparamagnetic properties and could be isolated from the dispersion medium by external magnetic field. Fourier Transform IR (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) data revealed that final nanocomposite particles contained reactive epoxide groups on or near the surface. The produced multifunctional γ-Al2O3 ceramic nanocomposite particles can be useful in biotechnology, catalysis and adsorbents for pollutant removal.