A study on the composites based on poly(succinimide)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) and ferrite and their magnetic response

In recent years magnetic polymer composites based on a polymer and an inorganic magnetic material attracted great interest, both in industry and in science. The biomedical application of polymers based on derivatives of amino acids such as poly(succinimide) for matrices is an alternative due to their low toxicity, biocompatibility and additionally, the presence of two different functional groups able to be functionalized with different molecules. Poly(ethylene glycol) is a non-ionic polymeric structure with a wide range of beneficial properties for biomedical applications, including low toxicity, biodegradability, biocompatibility and non-thrombogenicity. The magnetic composites based on block copolymers poly(succinimide)-b-poly(ethylene glycol) as matrices with different amounts of encapsulated ferrite are synthesized, by in situ polycondensation reaction, with manganese acetate as catalyst and dimethylformamide as reaction medium. The magnetic composites are characterized from the viewpoint of their chemical structure, ferrite distribution in the polymer matrix, morphological structure and functional characteristics by FT-IR, near infrared chemical imaging (NIR-CI), SEM and magnetization analyses.