Elham Naeemikhah - School of Chemistry, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran
Hossein Behniafar - School of Chemistry, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran
Alireza Pourali - School of Chemistry, Damghan University, Damghan, Iran

Magnetic crosslinked polystyrene (CPS) is an appropriate choice for solid-phase organic chemistry (SPOC) such as organic solid supports in separating processes.1 Divinylbenzene (DVB) is the most widely used crosslinker for preparing CPS thermosets.2 However, in this study, we use an α,ω-bis-4-(vinylbenzyl)ether of polyoxyethylene (BVE) as the comonomer/crosslinker. The resulting magnetic CPS exhibited superior swelling and solvent absorption compared to the conventional DVB-crosslinked CPS. This macro-crosslinker could be synthesized from polyethylene glycol and 4-chloromethyl styrene in large excess amounts. In order to achieve magnetic BVE-CPS, the polyaddition reaction of styrene monomer and BVE crosslinker was performed using a surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). To attain this purpose, initiator-anchored magnetite nanoparticles (MNP's) were used. The core-shell structure of BVE-CPS/MNP's nanocomposites obtained was thoroughly characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) techniques.

Magnetic crosslinked polystyrene, Surface-initiated ATRP technique, Hydrophilic crosslinker.