Synthesis and Characterisation of Transition Metal Iron Oxide Nanocomposite Crystals and Particles Using Wet Chemical Coprecipitation Method

Magnetic nanomaterials showing unique magnetic behaviour have spread their potential applications in various fields. Iron oxide nanomaterials have been developed for their unique properties that they develop at extremely small size. The high surface area to volume ratio, enhanced surface properties, excellent magnetic property with better biocompatibility are the most promising properties of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs). Hence development of bio-friendly and less toxic iron oxide NPs is the key point of research in recent years. Most importantly, unique physical and chemical properties of magnetite (Fe3O4), maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3) and hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) are significantly important in the field of technological and biological applications. At nanoscale transition metal iron oxide develops superparamagnetism, which is very important and promising for biomedical applications. In the current study Magnetite (Fe3O4) phase of iron oxide has been prepared in the laboratory using the coprecipitation method. In this study less expensive and widely used experimental setup has been designed to observe the size effect in magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The structural information was obtained using X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD result showed the presence of peaks corresponding to magnetite (Fe3O4) phase of iron oxide. The morphology of the particles was studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Magnetic properties were studied using vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Theoretical discussion on superparamagnetism has also been done.