Synthesis of spherical and cubic magnetic iron oxide nanocrystals at low temperature in air

Abstract

Synthesis of magnetite nanocrystals typically requires harsh reaction conditions, including high reaction pressures and/or temperatures, to obtain morphology-controlled nanocrystals like cubic magnetite nanocrystals. We report the synthesis of cubic magnetite nanocrystals with a size of 9 nm at reaction temperatures less than 100 °C in air. The synthesized magnetite nanocubes exhibited uniform size and highly crystalline nature. In addition, we synthesized size-controlled spherical magnetite nanocrystals in the size range of 2.5 nm to 9 nm by modifying the reaction conditions.