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Facile synthesis of monodispersed α-Fe2O3 microspheres through template-free hydrothermal route

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Abstract

Monodisperse α-Fe2O3 microspheres have been selectively synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method without the assistance of any surfactant, employing FeCl3·6H2O and NH4NaHPO4 as initial materials. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. α-Fe2O3 microspheres with average size about 250 nm were constructed by single crystalline nanoparticles with average diameter about 15 nm. The investigation on the evolution formation revealed that growth temperature was critical to control the assembly of the fresh formed nanocrystallites, and the microsphere formation was proved to be the Ostwald ripening process by tracking the structures of the products at different growth temperature. α-Fe2O3 microspheres showed a weak ferromagnetic behavior with a remanent magnetization of 0.208 emu g−1 and a coercivity of 1,034.27 Oe at room temperature.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the National Nature Science Foundation (50903040, 51103065), the special grade of the financial support from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (201003554), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (20090451169), the Jiangsu Postdoctoral Science Foundation (0901078C), the Jiangsu Key Lab of material tribology Foundation (kjsmcx0905), and the Senior Intellectuals Foundation of Jiangsu University (09JDG003).

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  1. School of the Environment, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 212013, China

    Xiao-Hua Jia

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 212013, China

    Hao-Jie Song

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  1. Xiao-Hua Jia
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  2. Hao-Jie Song
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Correspondence to Hao-Jie Song.

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Jia, XH., Song, HJ. Facile synthesis of monodispersed α-Fe2O3 microspheres through template-free hydrothermal route. J Nanopart Res 14, 663 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0663-x

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