Fabrication and Characterization of Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 Heterogeneous Nanorods

Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 heterogeneous nanorods were successfully prepared via calcination reduction process using glucose as reductant, and they were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and VSM techniques. The influences of additive concentration, solution volume, reaction temperature and reaction time on morphology and the properties of Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated. Firstly, α-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods were prepared by the hydrothermal approach, and the FeCl 3 concentration of 20 mM, the NH 4 H 2 PO 4 concentration of 0.96 mM, the hydrothermal volume of 60 mL, the hydrothermal temperature of 180 °C, and hydrothermal time of 12 h were selected as the optimum conditions. Secondly, magnetic Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 heterogeneous nanorods calcined at 600 °C for 3 h with the mass ratio of 1:20 for α-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods and glucose were constructed with largest saturation magnetization of 78.2 emu/g, their average length and average diameter were about 215.0 nm and 79.2 nm, respectively. Graphical Abstract An optimization process for the fabrication of magnetic Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 heterogeneous nanorods was introduced in this paper. Thereinto, α-Fe 2 O 3 nanorods as a precursor were fabricated by hydrothermal method, and using glucose as a reduction agent to prepare the results products by high-temperature calcination. The influences of FeCl 3 concentrations, NH 4 H 2 PO 4 concentration, solution volume, hydrothermal temperature, hydrothermal time and the ratio of the precursors and glucose on the morphologies and magnetic properties of α-Fe 2 O 3 and magnetic Fe 3 O 4 /α-Fe 2 O 3 heterogeneous nanorods were investigated, and their influence rules were revealed.