Thermal annealing synthesis of Fe4N/Fe nanocomposites from iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles

Abstract

A facile sono-thermal approach using inexpensive and non-toxic chemicals was applied for the large-scale synthesis of iron nitride/iron (Fe4N/Fe) nanocomposite. The as-synthesized iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles by sonochemical method were treated in a thermal annealing chamber in presence of hydrogen (H2) and ammonia (NH3) gases to obtain Fe4N/Fe nanocomposite. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses revealed that the Fe4N/Fe nanocomposite had been successfully synthesized using this simple method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) data demonstrated that the sizes of the as-synthesized Fe4N/Fe nanocomposite were larger compared to the sizes for the initial Fe3O4 NPs. The magnetization curve obtained using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements showed that the magnetization had been significantly increased in the synthesized Fe4N/Fe nanocomposite compared to that in the freshly-prepared Fe3O4 magnetic NPs.