Fabrication and Structural Characterization of Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube/Fe3O4 Nanocomposite

In the current research, Fe3O4 nanoparticles decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes were fabricated through an in situ chemical co-precipitation method of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in an alkaline solution. Then, MWCNTs/Fe3O4 nanocomposite was characterized by FTIR, XRD, TEM, TGA, VSM and raman spectroscopy. The results indicated that Fe3O4 nanoparticles with cubic crystal structure were successfully synthesized and homogeneously anchored on the outer surface of MWCNTs. Measurement of Fe3O4 particle size by TEM showed an average size of 20 nm. The presence of MWCNTs and Fe3O4 raman bands were also confirmed in raman spectrums. Finally, it was showed that Fe3O4 decorated MWCNTs exhibited ferromagnetism and possessed a higher saturation magnetization (42.2 emu/g) than that of nonmagnetic undecorated MWCNTs.