Magnetic Fe3O4@chitosan nanoparticle: synthesis, characterization and application as catalyst carrier.

A novel method was developed to prepare Fe3O4@CS beads with core-shell structure using a double-crosslinking process. Before the coating process, an unique crosslinking agent, glutaraldehyde (GA), was adsorbed onto the surface of Fe3O4 in advance, so the subsequent CS can uniformly coat around the magnetic core processed from the strong interaction between GA and CS, forming a perfect core-shell structure. The obtained Fe3O4@CS beads were followed by the Pd deposition through in-situ reduction method, and the prepared composite catalyst was applied exemplarily in synthesizing nabumetone to check its reusing property. The nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the magnetic hysteresis loop determination method. This novel composite catalyst showed admirable potential in reusable catalysis.