Synthesis and characterization of iron Oxide (hematite) nanoparticles by sol-gel method

Abstract

Iron oxide nanoparticles have excellent biomedical applications because of its large surface area. It can be used in drug delivery, cell separation, tissue repair and MRI. A Fe₂O₃ nanoparticle is synthesized chemically by sol-gel method. This method uses Ammonium hydroxide and Ethanol as a precursor for forming Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Thus Fe2O3 nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX) and UV Spectroscopy. All the structural parameters such as lattice constants, unit cell volume, density, crystalline size, micro strain are calculated from the XRD results using Debye Scherrer’s formula. When annealing temperature increased from 400oC to 1000oC the average crystalline size of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles are increased from 18nm to 22nm. FTIR technique also confirms functional groups of the synthesized Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The SEM image indicates that Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles are approximately spherical in shape. Band gap of the Fe2O3 nanoparticles is founded using UV Spectroscopy and it is reported in paper.