Continuous Hydrothermal Synthesis of Nickel Ferrite Nanoparticles Using a Central Collision-Type Micromixer: Effects of Temperature, Residence Time, Metal Salt Molality, and NaOH Addition on Conversion, Particle Size, and Crystal Phase

Continuous hydrothermal synthesis of nickel ferrite nanoparticles from Fe(NO(3))(3) and Ni(NO(3))(2) was performed using a central collision-type micromixer developed for rapid heating of a starting solution to the reaction temperature and homogeneous nucleation. Temperature, residence time, and nitrate molality were varied in the ranges 573-673 K, 0.02-2.00 s, and 0.05-0.50 mol/kg, respectively. The effects of temperature, residence time, nitrate molality, and NaOH addition on conversion, Ni/Fe molar ratio, particle size, and crystal phase were examined using ICP spectroscopy, EDX spectroscopy, TEM, and XRD. In the cases without NaOH, the Ni conversion was less than 2% at temperatures up to 623 K and increased dramatically to around 50% at 673 K, whereas the Fe conversion was more than 94% at all temperatures. In terms of conversion, the Ni/Fe molar ratio was less than 0.01 at temperatures up to 623 K, and stable nickel ferrite was not produced. By contrast, at 673 K, the Ni/Fe molar ratio increased sharply to more than 0.2, and stable nickel ferrite could be obtained. With increasing residence time at 673 K, the Ni conversion and Ni/Fe ratio increased, and the lattice parameter decreased from 8.35 to 8.34 angstrom. These results indicate that the products at an early stage of the reaction are similar in structure to gamma-Fe(2)O(3) and can be considered as a Ni-deficient NiFe(2)O(4) whereas the products at a later stage have a structure close to that of NiFe(2)O(4). In addition, the average particle size increased slightly from 5.2 to 7.4 nm at 0.05 mol/kg and increased markedly from 5.8 to 12.3 nm at 0.50 mol/kg with increasing temperature despite the high Fe conversion of >97% at the shortest residence time of 0.02 s. In the cases with NaOH, smaller nanoparticles of less than 5.0 nm with a stoichiometric Ni/Fe molar ratio of 0.5 were produced at 673 K. On the basis of these results, the mechanisms of nucleation and growth in the nickel ferrite synthesis are discussed.