Preparation, Surface Modification, and Characteristic of α-Fe2O3 Nanoparticles

Abstract

The α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were prepared via the co-precipitation process, and they were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The effect of the water bath temperature on the average grain size of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was investigated. The minimum grain size of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was 19.6 nm when the water bath temperature was 40 °C. Furthermore, the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were successfully modified with silica (SiO2) and chitosan (CTS) using the idea of nanoarchitectonics. the experimental results showed that, the average diameter of the as-prepared α-Fe2O3/SiO2 nanocomposites was around 65 nm; while, the average hydrodynamic diameter of the α-Fe2O3/CTS nanocomposites increased gradually with the increase of chitosan in solution. When the mass ratio of chitosan and the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles reached 40:1, the diameter distribution range of the α-Fe2O3/CTS nanocomposites was very wide of 100– 900 nm, so the mass ratio of chitosan and the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was selected from 10:1 to 20:1 to be applied.