A FeCO₃ Precursor-Based Route to Microsized Peanutlike Fe₃O₄

Abstract

It is reported in this paper that a microsized magnetic particle Fe 3 O 4 with peanutlike morphology is successfully prepared from FeCO 3 with the same morphology via direct-sealed thermal decomposition. The peanutlike FeCO 3 is obtained by hydrothermal reaction of the mixed aqueous solution containing Fe 3+ and CO 3 2- in the presence of ascorbic acid. The dynamic formation process of the FeCO 3 precursor and influence of reaction conditions on the FeCO 3 morphology are discussed in detail. The results show that both concentrations of ascorbic acid and Fe 3+ in the reactive system play critical roles in obtaining peanutlike morphology. With this method, other microsized Fe 3 O 4 or Fe 2 O 3 with ellipsoidal, ellipsoidal rods, or rodlike morphologies could also be developed.