Novel synthesis of highly monodispersed gamma-Fe2O3/SiO2 and epsilon Fe2O3/SiO2 nanocomposite spheres

A newly developed impregnation method to incorporate a large quantity of iron oxide into mesoporous silica hosts has been successfully employed to synthesize highly monodispersed magnetic iron oxide/silica nanocomposite spheres, which can directly serve as building blocks to form a three-dimensionally ordered structure through self-assembly.