Polymer-Mediated Synthesis of Iron Oxide (Fe2O3) Nanorods

Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles were synthesized by using iron chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3 center dot 6H(2)O) as the precursor and polyvinylpyrrolydon (PVP) as the surfactant and polymer agent. The samples were characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), field effect scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and a vibration sampling magnetometer (VSM). The XRD pattern showed that the iron oxide nanoparticles exhibited a gamma-Fe2O3 (maghemite) to alpha-Fe2O3 (hematite) structural phase transition in the nanocrystals. The particle size of the as-prepared sample was around 20 nm and the annealed sample was around 48 nm in diameter, as estimated by the XRD technique and direct HRTEM observation. The surface morphological studies from SEM depicted sphere-like shaped to rod-like shaped particles with the formation of clusters by increasing the annealing temperature. The sharp peaks in the FTIR spectrum determined the purity of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles, and the absorbance peak of the UV-Vis spectrum showed a bandgap energy of 2.58 eV. The result of the magnetic measurements showed a good coercive field and saturation magnetism around 85 G and 9.83 emu/g, respectively.