Getting insight into how iron(III) oleate precursors affect the features of magnetite nanoparticles

Abstract

The achievement of a successful heating power response of Fe3O4 nanoparticles for being applied in magnetic hyperthermia entails an exhaustive control of their magnetic characteristics and therefore, of the synthesis method employed. Despite the fact that one of the best wet-chemical methods to finely adjust Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) size over 15 ​nm is the thermal decomposition of iron(III) oleate, the studies about the specific influence of iron(III) oleate precursor on the IONPs are particularly scarce. So, in this work five iron(III) oleate precursors have been systematically prepared varying synthesis conditions and it has been analyzed how their characteristics affect the features of the ulterior magnetite NPs. The refined synthesis method has yield monophasic and monodisperse NPs of magnetite (Fe3O4) with different sizes (in the 10–40 ​nm range) and morphologies (cuboctahedral, octahedral and spherical). A complete chemical, structural, morphological and magnetic characterization have been performed to correlate the properties of the iron(III) oleate with the features of the subsequent magnetite NPs.