Transforming Hematite into Magnetite Using Mechanochemical Approach as a Pretreatment of Oolitic Hematite

Potential transformation of oolitic hematite into magnetite by mixing iron powder using the mechanochemical method has been achieved and discussed in this paper. The phase transition of pure hematite in the preliminary test was identified by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. The experimental results have shown that the crystallographic planes of magnetite, (220), (311), (400), and (511) were observed clearly in the Fe/-Fe2O3 mixture after milling for 15 h, indicating that -Fe2O3 had been effectively transformed into Fe3O4. The diffraction peaks of magnetite were also observed at d = 0.29605 nm (2 = 30.163 degrees), 0.25226 nm (2 = 35.559 degrees), 0.24156 nm (2 = 37.190 degrees), and 0.20898 nm (2 = 43.458 degrees) after 13 h milling-time. It suggests that the oolitic hematite is transformed into magnetite successfully by mechanochemical processing. The processing might be applied potentially for the magnetic separation of oolitic hematite.