“…In accordance with published data (Grosvenor et al, 2004;Martinez et al, 2007;Koleva et al, 2009), the peaks found at 711.5 eV and 725 eV match, respectively, the Fe 2p 1/2 and Fe 2p 3/2 band (categorized as the Fe 2+ state of Fe 3 O 4 ). These, together with 717 eV satellite peak, permit to differentiate unmistakably that the sample only contains Fe 3+ states, and therefore our nanoparticles are mainly maghemite (Grosvenor et al, 2004;Koleva et al, 2009;Martinez , 2007). In addition, the sample peak centred at 530 eV exhibited in the O 1s region (Fig.…”