Multigram-scale fabrication of monodisperse conducting polymer and magnetic carbon nanoparticles

The synthesis of monodisperse polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles and fabrication of magnetic carbon nanoparticles (MCNPs), was investigated in multigram scale. Conductive PPy nanoparticles can be prepared by chemical oxidation polymerization in the nanoscale domains of micelle cores. The monodisperse PPy nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical oxidation polymerization, using ferric chloride (FeCl3) as an oxidizing agent. During polymerization, iron cations were capable of forming a chelate complex with lone electron pairs on the PPy chains. PPy nanoparticles were transformed into MCNPs through a carbonization process in the presence of iron-based species. Elemental analysis and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis of the PPy nanoparticles confirmed the presence of C (55.7%), N (16%), Fe (2.5%). The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the MNCPs showed the characteristic (002), (100), and (004) peaks of graphite.