Magnetic polystyrene nanocomposites for the separation of oil and water

In this paper we describe the design, the preparation and the functional properties of a new composite material, consisting of magnetic nanoparticles embedded within polystyrene beads by mini-emulsion polymerization. The obtained material is effective in uploading oil phases dispersed in water. Magnetic nanobeads are able to diffuse in water, upload the oil and spontaneously migrate to the surface, where they can be magnetically collected. The size of the beads is shown to be tunable in the sub-micrometric range simply by varying the amount of the co-monomer (sodium styrene sulfonate), allowing the control of the properties of this nanocomposite material to specific oils to be separated from water.