A facile synthesis of magnetite single-crystal particles by employing GO sheets as template for promising application in magnetic fluid
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation,Beihang University
College of Materials Science and Engineering,Beijing University of Technology
作者简介:*Yong-Ling Fu e-mail:fuyongling@buaa.edu.cn;
收稿日期:8 October 2018
基金:financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51701109);
A facile synthesis of magnetite single-crystal particles by employing GO sheets as template for promising application in magnetic fluid
Zhen Qin Zhen-Hui Ma Jian-Kang Zhi Yong-Ling Fu
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation,Beihang University
College of Materials Science and Engineering,Beijing University of Technology
Abstract:
It was reported a facile strategy to fabricate magnetite(Fe3 O4)single-crystal particles with critical single-domain size by employing graphene oxide(GO)sheets as template.In this method,the small-sized Fe2 O3 nanoparticles were first synthesized,and then low-temperature annealing under H2 would convert them into large-sized Fe3 O4 single-crystal particles.The synthetic particles with an average size of 100 nm exhibit high saturation magnetization(Ms)of 0.085 A·m2·g-1,which is very close to theoretical value,being among the highest values in ever reported for Fe3 O4 made from chemical methods.On this basis,the small-sized Fe3 O4 particles(average size of 30 nm)were also fabricated by coating with Na2 CO3 shell.
Keyword:
Fe3O4; Critical single-domain size; Saturation magnetization; Chemical synthesis;
Received: 8 October 2018
1 Introduction
Magnetic nanoparticles have been extensively studied for their advanced applications such as magnetic storage
Among available superparamagnetic materials,magnetite (Fe3O4) has attracted much attention for its high saturation magnetization (Ms) and good chemical stability.Fe3O4 (FeO.Fe2O3) has an inverse spinel structure,where the spins of two Fe3+are antiferromagnetic coupled and cancel each other and magnetizationvalues are determined by Fe2+
Generally,thermal decomposition of iron organometallie compounds in a higher boiling point organic solvent could yield monodisperse iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs)
Despite these significant progresses in chemical synthesis,the magnetic performance of synthetic particles is still lower than theoretical value of 0.092 A m2.g-1 (bulk)
In this paper,a facile strategy is proposed to fabricate Fe3O4 single-crystal particles with critical single-domain size by employing graphene oxide (GO) sheets as template.Firstly,the small-sized Fe2O3 particles were synthesized,and then low-temperature annealing under H2 will convert them into large-sized Fe3O4 (average size of 100 nm)single-crystal particles.In this process,the size of Fe3O4particles can be tuned by coating with Na2CO3 shell.The synthetic particles with 100 nm in size exhibit high Ms of85 0.092 A·m2·g-1,which is very close to theoretical value,being among the highest values in ever reported for Fe3O4ade from chemical methods
2 Experimental
2.1 Synthesis of Fe2O3 nanoparticles
0.5 g Fe(NO3)3·9H2O was dissolved in 80 ml distilled water and 20 ml ethanol in a 250-ml beaker.Then 10 ml graphite oxide dispersed aqueous solution (0.5 g·L-1) was added in above solution.The graphite oxide sheets solution was bought from Nanjing XFNANO Materials Tech Co.,Ltd,which was prepared from graphite powder by a modified Hummers method.The solution was further homogenized under sonication for 1 h.After that,the beaker was put on a heating platform with strong magnetic stirring to heat to 367 K and this temperature was kept for1.5 h.After evaporating all of solution,the red powder was collected and put in alumina crucible.And then the alumina crucible was heated to 773 K at a rate of 10 K·min-1in the air.After keeping at this temperature for 2 h to remove GO sheets,the red Fe2O3 powder wasobtained.The synthesis of Fe2O3@Na2CO3 particles is similar with the synthetic process of Fe2O3 particles.2.4 g sodium citrate was added in mixed solution (80 ml water and20 ml ethanol) under otherwise identical conditions.The same process was followed,and at last deep yellow Fe2O3@Na2CO3 powder was obtained.
2.2 Synthesis of Fe3O4 particles
As-prepared Fe2O3 or Fe2O3@Na2CO3 particles were placed in an alumina boat,and the boat was put in tube furnace which was degassed 3 times to remove air and moisture.The temperature was raised to 673 K at a heating rate of 8 K min-1 and kept for 2 h under 95 vol%Ar+5vol%H2 atmosphere.After cooling the sample down to room temperature,the black Fe3O4 or brown Fe3O4@-Na2CO3 powder was obtained.For the Fe3O4@Na2CO3particles,they were dispersed in distilled water under sonication to remove Na2CO3,and this washing was run 3times.
2.3 Characterization
The crystallographic structure was identified by X-ray diffractometer (XRD,D/MAX 2200 PC) with Cu Kαradiation (λ=0.15418 nm).The microstructure and morphology of the above samples were investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM,ZEISS-SUPRA55)and transmission electron microscope (TEM,Tecnai G2F20).The magnetic properties were measured at room temperature using a vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM) under a maximum applied field of 3 T.
3 Results and discussion
The synthesis process is illustrated in Fig.1.First,a certain amount of Fe(NO3)3 and GO sheets was dispersed in aqueous soIution in a beaker.After evaporating all of solution,Fe(NO3)3 coated with GO sheets was obtaincd.Undergoing an annealing atlow temperature in air,the GO sheets were removed and the agglomcrative Fe2O3 particles with small size were synthesized.A further annealing under H2 would convert Fe2O3 into Fe3O4 single-crystal particles,where the size of Fe3O4 particles is far larger than that of Fe2O3 due to the grain growth.To impede the grain growth,an improved route was designed,where sodium citrate was added in original solution to prepare Fe2O3@-Na2CO3 core@shell particles.Followed by H2 annealing,Fe3O4@Na2CO3 particles would be fabricated,where Na2CO3 could prevent Fe3O4 particles from bonding with each other during annealing process.After washing Na2CO3,the small-sized Fe3O4 particles were achieved.Also,the size of final product can be tuned by controlling the amount of sodium citrate.
Figure 2a shows XRD patterns of as-prepared Fe2O3and Fe3O4particles.It can be seen from diffraction pattern of Fe2O3 particles that as-prepared Fe2O3 particles have two types of crystalline structures:one belongs to cubic Fe2O3 and another corresponds to hexagonal Fe2O3,which match well with the standard Fe2O3 patterns (JPCD No.39-1346 and No.33-0664),respectively.After undergoing an annealing under Ar+H2 at 673 K,they were reduced into cubic Fe3O4 which can be well indexed to standard PDF card of No.19-0629.Additionally,the sharper diffraction peaks of Fe3O4 compared to Fe2O3 indicate that the grain growth occurs during annealing procedure.Figure 2b gives SEM image of Fe2O3 particles,which suggests that as-prepared Fe2O3 particles have a well distribution and uniform size of 30-40 nm.It also can be observed that there is an obvious agglomeration.TEM
Fig.1 Schematic illustration of synthesis of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with different sizes by using GO sheets as template
Fig.2 Characterization of as-prepared Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 particles:a XRD patterns of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4,b SEM image of as-prepared Fe2O3nanoparticles,c TEM image of Fe2O3 particles,d HRTEM image of Fe2O3 particles,e TEM image of Fe3O4 particles after annealing under H2,and f HRTEM image of Fe3O4 particles
Fig.3 Characterization of as-prepared Fe2O3@Na2CO3 and corresponding Fe3O4 particles:a XRD patterns of Fe2O3@Na2CO3,Fe3O4@Na2CO3 and Fe3O4,b SEM image of as-prepared Fe2O3@Na2CO3 nanoparticles,c TEM image of Fe2O3@Na2CO3 nanoparticles,d elemental mappings of Fe2O3@Na2CO3 nanoparticles,e TEM image of Fe3O4 particles after annealing under H2 and removing Na2CO3,and f HRTEM image of Fe3O4 particles
image of Fe2O3 is given in Fig.2c,where these bonding particles integrate with each other like GO sheets shape,implying the template effect of GO sheets.And there are many particles forming rod-like particles with length of about 100 nm and diameter of 10 nm.The high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) image in Fig.2d further confirms the formation of Fe2O3 nanorods.The lattice fringes possessing the same direction illustrate the single-crystal structure of this nanorod.The interplanar distances of 0.270 and0.251 nm,which can be well fitted to (104) plane in hexagonal Fe2O3 and (311) plane in cubic Fe2O3,respectively,further confirming the existence of two types of Fe2O3 phase structure,in agreement with XRD data.According to Fig.2e,the synthetic Fe3O4 particles exhibit regularly cubic shape and a narrow size distribution with size of 80-120 nm (average size of 100 nm),being close to the critical single-domain size of 128 nm.And HRTEM
image in Fig.2f reveals the single-crystal structure of Fe3O4 particle.The formation of Fe3O4 phase is confirmed by the interplanar distance of 0.253 nm,which corresponds to the (311) plane in cubic Fe3O4,being consistent with XRD results in Fig.2a.The large size and sound single crystal of Fe3O4 may be attributed to the grain growth and recrystallization of small-sized Fe2O3 particles during reductive annealing process.
Fig.4 Room-temperature magnetic hysteresis loop of Fe3O4 particles prepared with and without Na2CO3 coating (inset:amplified curves around coercive value,samples of Fe3O4 particles prepared with and without Na2CO3 coating dispersed in ethanol and magnetically attracted samples)
Figure 3 a shows XRD patterns of as-prepared Fe2O3@Na2CO3,Fe3O4@Na2CO3 and Fe3O4 particles.According to the diffraction pattern,the Fe2O3@Na2CO3composites are obtained after annealing in air,where the reaction occurs:2Na3C6H5O7+3O2 3Na2CO3+5H2O+3CO2.There are also two types of crystalline structures for Fe2O3 particles (hexagonal and cubic phases),which is in accordance with Fig.2a.After undergoing an annealing under Ar+H2 at 673 K,Fe3O4@Na2CO3particles were fabricated,in which Fe3O4 phase possesses cubic structure,as same as Fe3O4 particles without Na2CO3coating.After removing Na2CO3 with water,the single Fe3O4 phase was achieved.Compared to Fe3O4 particles prepared without Na2CO3 coating,their diffracted peaks widen apparently,suggesting that smaller grain size is obtained and Na2CO3 could impede the grain growth.Figure 3b gives SEM image of Fe2O3@Na2CO3,demonstrating that the well-distribution composites have been synthesized.TEM result in Fig.3c further shows that small-sized Fe2O3 particles were well dispersed in Na2CO3matrix,where Na2CO3 particles can prevent Fe2O3 smallsized particles from contacting with each other.As shown in Fig.3d,the elemental mapping images give the distribution of Na and Fe,which further confirms that Fe2O3particles were embedded in Na2CO3.Fe3O4@Na2CO3composites were further prepared by H2 reduction at673 K.Owing to the similar morphology with Fe2O3@-Na2CO3 composites,the morphology of Fe3O4@Na2CO3 is not presented here.After removing extra Na2CO3,the small-sized Fe3O4 nanoparticles with size of 10-50 nm(average size of 30 nm) were achieved,as shown in Fig.3e.Unlike Fe3O4 particles without Na2CO3 coating,these Fe3O4 nanoparticles possess irregular shape,which may be explained that the existence of Na2CO3 matrix would restrain the free growth of Fe3O4 particles.HRTEMimage in Fig.3f illustrates that these small particles are single crystal and have interplanar distance of 0.253 nm,matching well to the (311) plane in cubic Fe3O4.
Figure 4 gives the room-temperature magnetic hysteresis loop of Fe3O4 particles prepared with and without Na2CO3 coating.The large-sized Fe3O4 particles (average size of 100 nm) exhibit high Ms of 0.085 A·m2·g-1,which is very close to the theoretical value of 0.092 A·m2·g-1 and is among the highest values ever reported for Fe3O4 particles made from chemical methods.The small-sized Fe3O4particles (average size of 30 nm) show a suitable Ms of0.068 A·m2.g-1.As shown in inset of Fig.4,the coercivities (Hc) of 0.0170 and 0.0106 T are achieved in 100-and30-nm Fe3O4 particles,respectively.The high Ms and He for large-sized Fe3O4 particles are mainly attributed to the good crystallization and less surface defects,as well as the critical single-domain structure.As known,the 100-nmsized particle and 30-nm-sized particles have smaller size than critical single-domain size of Fe3O4 particles(128 nm)
4 Conclusion
In summary,the large-sized Fe3O4 particles (average size of 100 nm) were synthesized by employing GO sheets as template.The high Ms of 0.085 A.m2.g-1 and coercivity of0.0170 T are achieved in Fe3O4 particles with critical single-domain size,which is very close to the theoretical value of 0.092 A·m2·g-1.On this basis,the small-sized Fe3O4 particles (average size of 30 nm) were fabricated by embedding them in Na2CO3 matrix,which have a suitable Ms of 0.068 A·m2.g-1.For large-sized Fe3O4 particles,the high magnetic performance is due to good crystallization,less surface defects and critical single-domain structure.Therefore,large-sized Fe3O4 particles are suitable for application in magnetic fluid,sensitive magnetic probes and targeted drug delivery due to their quick response.This approach is easy to extend to the synthesis of other magnetic nanoparticles such as C.oO and CoFe2O4.
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