Structure and magnetic properties of PP + Fe3O4 nanocomposites depending on manufacturing techniques

The structures and magnetic properties of the PP+Fe3O4 nanocomposites manufactured by different technological techniques were studied in this work. Polymeric nanocomposite materials based on PP + Fe3O4 were obtained by two technological methods: hot pressing and extrusion. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and AFM investigations of nanocomposites were carried out for structure analysis. It was found that the distribution of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in the polymer matrix for nanocomposites obtained by the hot pressing method is uniform and monodisperse. Compared to this, the heterogeneous and inhomogeneous distribution of nanoparticles in the polymer matrix for the samples that were produced through extrusion method was observed. Furthermore, the nanocomposite samples produced via the extraction method have a lower surface regularity rather than those obtained by hot pressing. M(H) and M(T) studies of polymer nanocomposite samples synthesized through both technological methods were performed. Studies have shown that for relatively low concentrated samples - PP+10% Fe3O4, the values of the saturation magnetization were close, but the magnetization of nanocomposites obtained by heat pressing was slightly higher than the other samples. This is because the samples obtained by hot pressing method are characterized by higher uniformity and structure that is called "flat packaging".