Green synthesis and characterization of superparamagnetic Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles

Abstract

In this paper, we have first demonstrated a facile and green synthetic approach for preparing superparamagnetic Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles using α- d-glucose as the reducing agent and gluconic acid (the oxidative product of glucose) as stabilizer and dispersant. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) results showed that the inverse spinel structure pure phase polycrystalline Fe 3O 4 was obtained. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results exhibited that Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles were roughly spherical shape and its average size was about 12.5 nm. The high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) result proved that the nanoparticles were structurally uniform with a lattice fringe spacing about 0.25 nm, which corresponded well with the values of 0.253 nm of the (3 1 1) lattice plane of the inverse spinel Fe 3O 4 obtained from the JCPDS database. The superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) results revealed that the blocking temperature ( T b) was 190 K, and that the magnetic hysteresis loop at 300 K showed a saturation magnetization of 60.5 emu/g, and the absence of coercivity and remanence indicated that the as-synthesized Fe 3O 4 nanoparticles had superparamagnetic properties. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectrum displayed that the characteristic band of Fe–O at 569 cm −1 was indicative of Fe 3O 4. This method might provide a new, mild, green, and economical concept for the synthesis of other nanomaterials.