Magnetite Nanoparticles Synthesized Using Pulsed Plasma in Liquid

Iron oxide nanoparticles have attracted much attention over the last few years owing to their fundamental importance and technological applications. In this work, spherical ferromagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles with an average diameter of 19 nm were synthesized by a simple and one-step method, pulsed plasma in liquid. Pulsed plasma, induced by a low-voltage spark discharge, was submerged in a dielectric liquid at a voltage of 200 V, a current of 6 A, a frequency of 60 Hz, and a single discharge duration of 10 mu s. Water with different concentrations of 1-hexadecylpyridinium bromide (CPyB) was applied as a liquid, and several experiments made evident that the surfactant concentration affects the phase compositions of the produced materials. The purity of the magnetite phase in the sample increased (from 65 to 98%) with increasing CPyB concentration (from 0.10 to 0.84 g) in 200 ml of water. The crystal structure of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles with the Fd (3) over barm space group and a lattice parameter of a = 0.8393 nm was evident from X-ray diffraction results. Magnetite nanoparticles were investigated further by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy/energy-dispersive spectroscopy and thermogravimetrical analysis, and using a vibrating sample magnetometer. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics