Synthesis and characterization of chalcone based benzoxazine-magnetite nanocomposites

Abstract Here, we proposed an approach to develop magnetic chalcone based benzoxazine using different contents of magnetite nanoparticles. A chalcone containing benzoxazine was prepared from 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one), stearyl amine and paraformaldehyde through Mannich condensation reaction in a cosolvent of ethanol/toluene (1/1)(v/v). The chemical structure of the prepared benzoxazine monomer was confirmed by FTIR and 1 H NMR. Both monomer and monomer mixed with different contents of magnetite were exposed to UV irradiation to induce dimerization via [2p + 2p] cycloaddition followed by thermal curing of oxazine moiety. The crystal structure of magnetite nanoparticles was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to examine the surface morphology of the resulted materials. The average size of magnetite nanoparticles was determined by transmission electron microscope (TEM) to be 30–40 nm. The magnetization properties of these materials were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The thermal properties of thermosets were evaluated and compared with nanocomposites using TGA and DSC. The thermosets exhibited good thermal stability and improved with increasing the magnetite contents in the feed.