Benzoic acid-functionalized α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization, magnetic and optical properties

Abstract

In this work, a new iron precursor was prepared, calcinated at 500 °C and 600 °C. The final α-Fe2O3 products (named Fe-500 and Fe-600) were characterized using the Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-Vis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis. The results of the FT-IR analysis demonstrated thet the sharp peaks at wavenumbers 450-650 cm-1 confirmed the stretching vibration of Fe-O. The XRD results revealed that the product prepared at 500 °C was a mixture of 59% rhombohedral and 41% cubic phases of Fe2O3 with only 11% of cubic phase Fe2O3 in the sample processed at 600 °C. TEM images showed a slight increase in particle size by increasing the calcination temperature. The magnetic properties of the products depicted a weak ferromagnetic behavior.