Synthesis and characterizations of Fe₃O₄-acid fuchsin tagged poly(ϵ-caprolactone) nanocomposites

Ring opening polymerization (ROP) of caprolactone (CL) was carried out at different experimental conditions such as variation in [M], [M/I] and temperature under N2 atmosphere at 160 °C for 2 h with mild stirring condition by using acid fuchsin (AF) decorated Fe3O4 as a novel chemical initiator with the aid of stannous octoate as an effective catalyst. Thus, prepared polymer nano composite samples were characterised by various analytical techniques such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), vibrating sample measurement (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Presence of Fe2p and Fe3p was confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. It was found that while increasing the [M/I] the melt transition values were increased. The surface catalytic effect of Fe3O4/AF hybrid system towards the ROP of CL was also studied.