Magnetic PolyHIPE Composites With Activated Carbon and Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

This paper investigated the effects of simultaneous incorporation of activated carbon (ATC, 1 wt%) and iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles (5, 10, and 15 wt%) on physical, thermal, mechanical, magnetic, and adsorption properties of poly-high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) composites. The addition of 1% ATC-5% Fe₃O₄ and 1% ATC-10% Fe₃O₄ into the polymer matrices led to the polyHIPE composites with the improvement of physical, thermal, and mechanical properties, whereas the excess amount of Fe₃O₄ at 1% ATC-15% Fe₃O₄ caused structural instability and consequently resulted in the poor physical and mechanical properties. The 1% ATC-10% Fe₃O₄ composites with the compromised properties by having the surface area of 768 m²/g, onset decomposition temperature (T_d) of 325 °C, elastic modulus of 10.45 MPa, crushing strength of 0.59 MPa, and saturated magnetization (M_s) of 11.1 emu/g possessed high iron(III) ions (Fe³⁺) adsorption efficiency at 86.4% which is promising to be developed for heavy metal ion adsorption applications. These results suggest that the properties of magnetic polyHIPE composites can be improved by the synergistic incorporation of ATC and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles.