One step grafting of iron phthalocyanine containing flexible chains on Fe3O4 nanoparticles towards high performance polymer magnetic composites

•An effective approach to graft CuPc containing flexible chains on Fe.•Effect on the mechanical, thermal and interfacial properties were investigated.•The dispersion state was characterized using parallel-plate rheometry.•The mechanism of interfacial compatibility was clarified.

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 Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NP-ph@Fe3O4). 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@Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The NP-ph@Fe3O4 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@Fe3O4 nanoparticles present better dispersion and interfacial compatibility with PAEN matrix than that of raw Fe3O4, which was further confirmed by rheological study. Consequently, the improved thermal stability and enhanced mechanical properties were obtained from composites using NP-ph@Fe3O4. 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@Fe3O4 composite films increased with the increase of the hybrid nanoparticles loading. Thus, the PAEN/NP-ph@Fe3O4 composite would find potential applications in organic magnetic films fields due to their high thermal stability, excellent flexibility and tunable magnetic properties.