Preparation and investigation of Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB transparent nano-composite films

Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB transparent nano-composite films were prepared by means of a two-step acid-catalyzed method and sol-gel process using surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the starting material, iron nitrate Fe(NO3)3·9H2O as iron source material. Optical properties, structural and magnetic characteristics of the films were investigated by UV-visible spectra, FT-IR spectra and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The transparency of the high temperature treated Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB nano-composite films exceeds the glass substrate. It is also found that the saturation magnetization (Ms) of the films increases with the treating temperature. The magnetization measurements reveal that Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB nano-composite films display normal ferromagnetic behaviors. It is also shown that the CTAB plays a key role in the optical and magnetic properties of Fe2O3-SiO2-CTAB composite films.