Preparation and characterization of α-Fe2O3 via auto-combustion synthesis
Ayman A. Ali Mostafa Y. Nassar, Abd elazeem M. El sharkwy, Alaa S. Amin and Esraa A. Abdel Lateif
Abstract:
Hematite nanoparticles (α-Fe2O3) have been successfully fabricated by using auto-combustion method followed by calcination at 600 oC for one hour. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by different tools such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and Fourier transform infrared analysis (FT-IR). The average crystallite size of the as-fabricated iron oxide was calculated to be 54 nm. The characteristic absorption peaks at 535 and 450 cm-1 correspond to iron-oxygen stretching and bending vi¬bration mode of α-Fe2O3, respectively. The FE-SEM photograph displayed that the synthesized hematite nanoparticles are agglomerated in quasi-spherical shapes with hard agglomeration and the average particle size in the range 1 µm.