Mohamady Ghobashy, Cogent Chemistry (2017), 3: 1363341 https://doi.org/10.1080/23312009.2017.1363341 MATERIALS CHEMISTRY | RESEARCH ARTICLE Functionalized of wax-magnetic nanocomposite (Fe 3 O 4 /PE) pellets by radiation grafting of PAAc for safe dye removal Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy 1 * Abstract: Gamma radiation has been used for the fabrication of polyethylene (PE) wax from low density polyethylene pellets composited with 30wt% magnetic oxide Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. The surface of (PE/Fe 3 O 4 ) pellets was grafted by acrylic acid AAc using gamma irradiation techniques. A polarity of COOH groups support (PE/ Fe 3 O 4 ) uses, where functionalization give it facilities to be ready in hydrophilic and/or hydrophobic environments and increasing the capability in adsorbing wide variety of dyes molecules. Wax increases the stability and this will help to improve the recy- clability of (PE-g-PAAc)/Fe 3 O 4 ; recyclability is also helped by Fe 3 O 4 , compared to tradi- tional dye adsorbents. The grafted polyethylene wax can serve as a good adsorbent support for a large variety of dyes. The chemical structure of the modifed PE sur- face was achieved by a grafting process using attenuated total refectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Samples of (PE-g-PAAc)/Fe 3 O 4 have been characterized for water uptake and surface morphology using a scanning electron microscope (SEM); the crystal structure has been determined using X-ray difraction; and dye removal efciency was assessed using toluidine blue (TB) as a model. Subjects: Chemistry; Material Science; Materials Science Keywords: radiation grafting; nanocomposite; pellets; magnetic wax; PAAc 1. Introduction There are many advantages of radiation grafting over other conventional methods due to its sim- plicity, and because catalysts and additives are not needed to initiate the grafting reaction (1). Grafting is a process that the polymer acquisition a new feature given them a prioritie to use in a *Corresponding author: Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy, Nanotechnology and Hydrogel Laboratory, Radiation Research of Polymer Department, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology (NCRRT), Atomic Energy Authority, P.O. Box 29, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt Email: mohamed.ghobashy@eaea. org.eg Reviewing editor: Alexandra Martha Zoya Slawin, University of St. Andrews, UK Additional information is available at the end of the article ABOUT THE AUTHOR The author is a specialist in: (1) nanotechnology applications; (2) the author’s specifc interests are: Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC), as electroactive polymer (EAP) and magnetic polymer; (3) application of radiation chemistry for synthesis of polymer and hydrogel with a wide range biomedical application; other kind of polymeric materials likes (Organogel, fabric polymer and grafted flms for diferent applications like self-cleaning and self-healing hydrogel PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT • Uses of radiation technology for preparing wax-magnetic nanocomposite (Fe 3 O 4 /PE) pellets grafted by PAAc. • Functionalized give wax to be ready in hydrophilic and/or hydrophobic environments. • The (PE-g-PAAc)/Fe 3 O 4 pellets were expanded due to the swelling process. • Capability of adsorbing a TB dye was examined. Received: 09 November 2016 Accepted: 31 July 2017 First Published: 04 August 2017 © 2017 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Page 1 of 9 Mohamed Mohamady Ghobashy