Investigation on the Controllable Synthesis of Colorized and Magnetic Polystyrene Beads With Millimeter Size via In Situ Suspension Polymerization

Juntao Yan; Hua Wu; Pan Huang; Yourong Wang; Bowang Shu; Xiaofang Li; Deng Ding; Ya Sun; Chunlei Wang; Jian Wu; Linbing Sun

doi:10.3389/fchem.2022.891582

Investigation on the Controllable Synthesis of Colorized and Magnetic Polystyrene Beads With Millimeter Size via In Situ Suspension Polymerization

Front Chem. 2022 May 27:10:891582. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2022.891582. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Juntao Yan¹, Hua Wu¹, Pan Huang¹, Yourong Wang¹, Bowang Shu², Xiaofang Li¹, Deng Ding¹, Ya Sun¹, Chunlei Wang¹, Jian Wu², Linbing Sun³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, China.
² College of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China.
³ College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

A series of colorized and magnetic polystyrene/Fe₃O₄ (PS/Fe₃O₄) composite beads with millimeter size are successfully synthesized by introducing hydrophobic Fe₃O₄ via in situ suspension polymerization of styrene for the first time. Effects of the hydrophobic Fe₃O₄ content, stirring speed, and surfactant dosage on the macromorphology and particle size of PS/Fe₃O₄ beads are systematically investigated to realize the controllable synthesis. Moreover, three kinds of hydrophobic pigments are also employed to synthesize colorized polystyrene, which demonstrates the versatility, simplicity, and wide applicability of the proposed method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and element mapping (EM) images demonstrated that the hydrophobic Fe₃O₄ is well dispersed in the polystyrene matrix. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) shows that the resultant PS/Fe₃O₄ beads possess a better thermal stability than neat PS. PS/Fe₃O₄ beads have a promising application in the fields of colorized extruded PS board, colorized expanded PS foam particle, and board.

Keywords: Fe3O4; colorized polystyrene bead; controllable synthesis; in situ suspension polymerization; micrometer size.