Preparation and characterization of composite microspheres of nano zinc ferrite/poly(D,L-lactide-co-alanine)

Magnetic nano zinc ferrite fliuds were synthesized using an improved liquid phase chemical method, which would be used to replace tradditional iron oxides magnetic material. A novel copolymer （PLAA） with D, L-lactide （D, L-LA） and alanine was synthesized using stannous octoate as initiator. Magnetic polymer microspheres were fabricated with nano zinc ferrite fluid coated with alanine modified poly lactide. These as-prepared zinc ferrite fluids, modified poly lactide and magnetic composites, were characterized with X-ray diffraction diffractometer, FT-IR spectrometer, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, vibrating sample magnetometer, and thermogravimetric analyzer. The results demonstrate that the as-prepared zinc ferrite is spinel type of ZnFe2O4 nano crystals with particle size of 20-45 nm and magnetization of 32×10^-3 A.m2. Alanine is copolymerized with lactide, and the prepared composite magnetic microsphere is coated with the modified polylactide, with mass fraction of 45.5% of PLA, particle size ranging from 80-300 nm, and magnetization of 10.6×10^-3 A·m^2, which suggests ZnFe2O4 enjoys a stable magnetization after being coated by polymer.

Design and Fabrication of Superparamaganitic Hybrid Microspheres for Protein Immobilization

Superparamagnetic poly（styrene）-co-poly（2-acrylanmido-2-methyl propanesulfonic acid） （PSt-co-PAMPS） and poly（methylmethacrylate）-co-poly（glycidyl methacrylate） （PMMA-co-PGMA） microspheres with mean size of 170 nm were prepared by emulsion polymerization in the presence of oleic acid-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The structures, morphologies, diameter and diameter distribution of the as-prepared microspheres were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FT-IR） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. The saturation magnetizations of PSt-co-PAMPS and PMMA-co-PGMA microspheres are 21.94 and 25.07 emu/g, respectively. The as-synthesized magnetic microspheres were used for immobilization of Bovine serum albumin （BSA） by physical interaction and covalent interaction respectively. The equilibrium amount of BSA immobilized onto PMMA-co-PGMA microspheres was 86.48 mg/g microspheres in 90 min, while on PSt-co-PAMPS microspheres was 59.62 mg/g microspheres in 120 min.

PREPARATION OF COMPOSITE MAGNETIC MICROSPHERES BY REACTIVE BLENDING

A novel method for preparation of polymer-based magnetic microspheres was proposed by utilizing melt reactive blending, which was based on selective location of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in PA6 domains of polystyrene （PS）/polyamide 6 （PA6） immiscible blends. The morphology of PA6/Fe3O4 composite magnetic mierospheres was studied by scanning electronic microscopy （SEM）. The composite magnetic mierospheres were spherical with a diameter range of 0.5-8 μm; the diameter was sharply decreased with a very narrow distribution by adding terminal maleic anhydride fimctionalized polystyrenes （FPS） for reactive blending. Transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and thermogravimetry analysis （TGA） results showed that most of Fe3O4 was located in the PA6 microspheres. Magnetization data revealed the magnetite content of PA6/Fe3O4 microspheres was about 32 wt% and the saturation magnetization could be up to 17.2 AmE/kg.