Morphology Control of Novel Cross-Linked Ferrocenedimethanol Derivative Cyclophosphazenes: From Microspheres to Nanotubes and Their Enhanced Physicochemical Performances.
Yasir AbbasZareen ZuhraMajid BasharatMunan QiuZhanpeng WuDezhen WuShafqat AliPublished in: The journal of physical chemistry. B (2019)
Polyphosphazenes have grabbed focal attention in materials research due to their structural diversity, intrinsic backbone stability, and capability to form hybrid molecules. Herein, for the first time, we report morphology-controlled cross-linked hybrid nanotubes and microspheres composed of a novel iron-containing poly(ferrocenedimethano)cyclotriphosphazene synthesized via a facile polycondensation between 1,1'-ferrocenedimethanol and hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene. The morphology was tuned by introducing two sets of mixed solvent systems that are tetrahydrofuran:acetonitrile and acetone:toluene mixtures, for the growth of nanotubes and microspheres, respectively. A growth mechanism for nanotubes and microspheres has been proposed. The nanotubes exhibited intrinsic paramagnetic properties (saturation magnetization of 53 emu/g and coercivity of 19.6) and fluorescence emission (2450 au) as compared to microspheres owing to their remarkable cross-linked structure. Both nanotubes and microspheres demonstrated significant potential to absorb negatively charged hazardous methyl orange dye, and their adsorption capacities came out under the range of 880-2235 and 737-2125 mg g-1, respectively. This facile fabrication route is anticipated to open a new window for structural manipulation of other metal-containing polymers for improved physicochemical properties.