A FeCO3 precursor-based route to microsized peanutlike Fe3O4

It is reported in this paper that a microsized magnetic particle Fe3O4 with peanutlike morphology is successfully prepared from FeCO3 with the same morphology via direct-sealed thermal decomposition. The peanutlike FeCO3 is obtained by hydrothermal reaction of the mixed aqueous solution containing Fe3+ and CO32- in the presence of ascorbic acid. The dynamic formation process of the FeCO3 precursor and influence of reaction conditions on the FeCO3 morphology are discussed in detail. The results show that both concentrations of ascorbic acid and Fe3+ in the reactive system play critical roles in obtaining peanutlike morphology. With this method, other microsized Fe3O4 or Fe2O3 with ellipsoidal, ellipsoidal rods, or rodlike morphologies could also be developed.