Fabrication of PMMA/PANI/Fe3O4 as a Novel Conducting Hybrid Coating

ABSTRACT In this paper, an excellent new hybrid coating including poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polyaniline (PANI), and magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4) was obtained. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized using coprecipitation method, and then magnetite nanoparticles have been dispersed into the PANI to increase compatibility with PMMA. Also, PANI/Fe3O4 nanocomposites were synthesized through in situ emulsion polymerization, and then PMMA/PANI/Fe3O4 hybrid coating was successfully synthesized using batch emulsion polymerization method. Structure, morphology and thermal stability of the samples were characterized using Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The synthesized samples were well distributed with an average diameter smaller than 20 nm. Microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results illustrated a great dispersion of magnetite nanoparticles in hybrid matrix. Moreover, the TGA results demonstrated that the PMMA/PANI/Fe3O4 hybrid coating nanoparticle is an excellent hybrid coating with high thermal resistance. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT