Preparation of a nanocomposite of magnetic, conducting nanoporous polyaniline and hollow manganese ferrite

A nanocomposite of conducting, protonated, polyaniline and hollow MnFe2O4 was successfully synthesized by in situ self-assembly polymerization. First, core-shell hollow spheres of MnFe2O4 were fabricated by template polymerization, in which ferrite nanoparticles were coated onto the surface of functionalized core polystyrene (PS) spheres, and the core polymer was subsequently removed by calcination. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra of the ferrite-coated PS spheres and MnFe2O4 hollow spheres confirmed the elimination of the organic template after calcination. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the resultant composite was structurally nanoporous. The shape and holes of the MnFe2O4 spheres were investigated by transmission electron microscopy. In addition, the magnetic properties of the nanocomposite and MnFe2O4 were characterized on a vibrating sample magnetometer with maximum saturation magnetization values of 1.59 and 66.7 emu g(-1), respectively. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the ferrite sample agreed well with the standard pattern of the cubic structure. Atomic force microscopy was used for surface morphology analysis. Polymer Journal (2011) 43, 745-750; doi: 10.1038/pj.2011.47; published online 27 July 2011