Gamma Irradiation Inducing the Synthesis of Magnetic Fe3O4 Nanorod Particles in Alkaline Medium

Abstract

Gamma irradiation has been employed to produce magnetic nanorod particles of magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) in alkaline medium at pH 13.2, in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol solution used as an organic surfactant molecule in order to stabilize the growth of particles during synthesis. Pure sub micron sized particles with bullet-shaped morphology were prepared at pH 11.3 and well dispersed nanorod particles of Fe 3 O 4 were synthesized at pH 13.2. It has been proven that the morphology of the as prepared oxides is strongly dependent on the pH value of the starting solution before irradiation. It has also been shown that the gamma irradiation can efficiently induce changes in structure and in morphology of the sols prepared before gamma irradiation. The XRD analysis revealed that the sol product prepared before irradiation corresponded to the standard ferric oxyhydroxide, FeO(OH) which was transformed under gamma irradiation to ferriferrous oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ). The transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that the as-synthesized nanoparticles were single crystals.

Rheological, Microstructural and Thermal Properties of Magnetic Poly(Ethylene Oxide)/Iron Oxide Nanocomposite Hydrogels Synthesized Using a One-Step Gamma-Irradiation Method

“…More reducing conditions were obtained at higher pH. This can be explained by the higher yield of hydrated electrons in a highly alkaline medium [ 19 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. In an alkaline medium, the hydrogen atoms are converted to hydrated electrons.…”

“…However, the studies are mostly oriented toward the synthesis of metal NPs and gels containing metal NPs. The radiolytic synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles and nanocomposite gels is rarely studied [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. One of the reasons for this is a very complex iron oxide chemistry, which generates numerous iron oxide and oxyhydroxide polymorphs.…”