Synthesis and characterization of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles from iron sand in Batanghari Beach

Abstract

The utilization of sand is still limited as a building material, so development is needed to increase the use-value of iron sand from the Batanghari River. No one study was found to improve iron sand in this field into magnetic material. This paper informs a case study of the synthesis and characterization of Fe3O4 nanoparticles from the Batanghari Jambi river iron sand using the coprecipitation method. Sintering temperature variations were carried out to see the effect of sintering temperature on crystal size, crystal structure, and optical properties of the sample. Sintering temperature variations used are 300°C, 400°C, and 500°C. The synthesis results showed that the sintering temperature of iron sand extract did not affect the crystal structure formed. However, the sintering temperature affects the size of the crystal; the higher the sintering temperature, the size of the crystal will be even greater. At a temperature of 300°C, a Fe3O4 crystal size was 6.94 nm, at a temperature of 400°C a Fe3O4 crystal size was 8.29 nm and at a temperature of 500°C a crystal size of 10.15 nm was obtained. The synthesis results also show that the higher the sintering temperature, the optical properties of the iron sand extract, the better. The decreasing energy gap value indicates this. At a temperature of 300°C, a gap energy value of 2.0 eV was obtained, at a temperature of 400°C a gap energy value of 1.9 eV was obtained and at a temperature of 500°C, the energy gap obtained was 1.8 eV.