Effect of Synthesizing Process on the Formation of Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles

In this work, the effect of synthesizing process on the morphology, structure, and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles have been studied by performing X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, and vibrating sample magnetometer measurements. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal and solvothermal methods. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that both samples have cubic crystal phase. However, Fe2O3 impurity peaks were observed in the sample synthesized by hydrothermal method. The crystallite sizes of samples synthesized by hydrothermal and solvothermal methods were approximately 38 and 24 nm, respectively. The scanning electron microscope images show that spherical porous and cubic shape Fe3O4 nanoparticles were obtained by solvothermal and hydrothermal method, respectively. The average particle sizes of Fe3O4 samples synthesized by hydrothermal and solvothermal methods were determined as 220 and 450 nm, respectively. Both samples behave a soft ferromagnetic characteristic having almost zero coercive field. The magnetic saturation values of Fe3O4 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal and solvothermal methods were determined as 28.78 and 77.31 emu/g, respectively. As a result of the characterizations, porous Fe3O4 nanoparticles synthesized by solvothermal method show better crystal structure, morphological and magnetic properties than Fe3O4 nanoparticles synthesized by hydrothermal method.