Preparation and characterization of nanosized magnetite/titania@emeraldine composites

In this paper, we report the preparation of nanosized magnetite/titania@emeraldine by polymerization route. The quantitative analysis of X-ray diffraction data showed the presence of two crystalline phases in the nanocomposites. Those were magnetite with cubic inverse spinel structure and titania with anatase structure. Meanwhile, the existence of emeraldine was confirmed by its functional groups indicated by the vibration of C-H in-plane and out-plane. The C-N of the benzenoid ring, C=C of the quinoid ring, and stretching N-H functional groups at the respective wavenumbers of 808 and 1149, 1305-1326, 1501, and 3705-3760 cm⁻¹. The functional groups of magnetite and titania were also detected by the vibration of Fe-O at the tetrahedral and octahedral sites at the wavenumbers of 523 and 452 cm⁻¹ for magnetite and Ti-O- Ti in the wavenumber range of 645-685 cm⁻¹ for titania. Based on the scanning electron microscopy image, the morphology of the magnetite/titania@emeraldine nanocomposites tended to agglomerate. The magnetic properties showed that the nanocomposites exhibited superparamagnetic behavior with the saturation magnetization of 1.81 emu/g. Furthermore, the bandgap energy of the nanocomposites was 2.180 eV for magnetite and 3.344 eV for titania.