Thermal synthesis of Hematite nanoparticles: Structural, magnetic and morphological characterizations

Document Type : Reasearch Paper

Authors

• Anubha Dey ¹
• Maciej Zubko ^{2, 3}
• Joachim Kusz ⁴
• Varimalla Raghavendra Reddy ⁵
• Alok Banerjee ⁵
• Ashis Bhattacharjee ¹

¹ Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 731235, India.

² Institute of Material Science, University of Silesia, Poland.

³ Department of Physics, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.

⁴ Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.

⁵ UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Mossbauer and MOKE laboratory, Indore, India.

Abstract

Hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) nanoparticle was synthesized using organometallic compound - ferrocene carboxaldehyde through solventless solid state thermal decomposition technique. The crystal structure, magnetic and morphological properties of the decomposed material were studied using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry, ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques. Structural study confirmed that the synthesized material is hematite with hexagonal phase and good crystallinity. The temperature-dependent magnetization measurement exhibited the Morin transition - the yardstick for hematite formation. Mössbauer spectroscopic study confirmed the purity of phase of the synthesized material. The SEM study observed mostly the agglomerated tiny particles along with some ring-shaped surface structures. The TEM study of the synthesized material showed that the highest distribution of the particles with ~5 nm size. The observed EDX spectra confirmed the existence of Fe and O in the synthesized material. The solid state reaction process leading to hematite on decomposition of ferrocene carboxaldehyde has also been proposed. Present study describes a simple process for the preparation of pure hematite nanoparticle by solventless method.

Keywords

• Characterization
• Ferrocene Carboxaldehyd
• Hematite
• Nanoparticle
• Thermal Synthesis

20.1001.1.20088868.2020.11.2.9.9

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