(217cm) Old Material, New Function - Polypropylene Grafted With Maleic Anhydride in Manipulating the Crystalline Phase of Magnetic Nanocrystals

The new function of a long known plastic compatibilizer / coupling agent - polypropylene grafted with maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA), has been demonstrated with controlling the crystalline phase in addition to the conventionally achieved size, shape, and self assembly pattern- manipulated of magnetic nano-crystals. Specifically, PP-g-MA with different molecular weights and concentrations were utilized to synthesize these magnetic nanostructures through a facile bottom-up wet chemistry method. Usually, the high temperature annealing process is able to convert the crystalline phase of magnetic nano-crystals from low stable to high stable phase through applying different temperatures, which is time consuming and costly. Here, through using this convenient bottom up solution based method, we provide a useful alternative to direct control the crystalline phase while synthesizing magnetic nanostructures. In addition, the resulted significant differences in the magnetic property from different crystalline phase and self assembly patterns can in turn be utilized for different applications.