Synthesis and characterization of star shaped α-Fe2O3/Au nanocomposites

Novel star shaped alpha-Fe2O3/Au nanocomposites have been synthesized by following a low cost as well as simple two-step method through chemical precipitation and seed growing technique. alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have been precipitated from Iron (III) nitrate nanohydrate by ammonia solution and subsequently citrate capped and then Au has been deposited on the surface of the nanoparticles through reduction of Gold (III) chloride trihydrate by Hydroxylammonium chloride. The alpha-Fe2O3/Au nanocomposites are well crystalline in nature with excellent star/flower shaped particles having uniform arms/petals of length similar to 174 nm and maximum width similar to 51 nm. XRD of nanocomposites show peaks representing all the crystal planes of Au and major crystal planes of alpha-Fe2O3.The optical absorbance band of the alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles is observed to shift considerably towards higher wavelength on their composite formation with gold. Magnetic measurements show that both alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles and alpha-Fe2O3/Au nanocomposites are weakly ferromagnetic, having values of magnetization, respectively, 0.99 emu/g and 0.36 emu/g at a magnetizing field of 50 kOe. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advanced Materials Behavior and Characterization.