Sol–gel synthesis and characterization of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract

The α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized via sol–gel technique. The lattice parameters, the lattice strain and crystallite size were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis has been carried out to confirm the presence of functional groups. Using UV–visible spectrum, the optical band gap energy is estimated as 2.55eV. The morphology and chemical composition of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were examined by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray diffraction analysis (EDX) respectively. The hysteresis loop was traced out using vibration sample magnetometer and the values of coercivity and saturation magnetization are found out to be 3891G and 0.4193emu/g respectively.