Fabrication of high-performance magnetic elastomers by using natural polymer as auxiliary dispersant of Fe3O4 nanoparticles

Abstract Achieving fillers well-distributed in the polymeric matrix via a green and eco-friendly method is critical for composites preparation to gain considerable comprehensive properties. In this work, we describe Fe3O4-based magnetic elastomer composites with superior mechanical, thermal and magnetic properties via a latex film-forming approach by using carboxylic styrene butadiene rubber (XSBR) as rubber matrix and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) as a dispersant for Fe3O4. It was found that CMCS promoted the dispersion of Fe3O4 remarkably and improved the interfacial compatibility between Fe3O4 and XSBR matrix. Simultaneously, the XSBR/CMCS/Fe3O4 composite with 25 wt% Fe3O4 displayed a higher tensile strength was about 2.5 times of the neat XSBR. And the saturation magnetization of the XSBR/CMCS/Fe3O4 composite was about 1.2 times that of XSBR/Fe3O4 at the same filler content. Therefore, this report provided a new solution to uniformly disperse Fe3O4 in rubber composites by latex film-forming method without any dispersion guarantee measures.