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 (Fe3O4) 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 Fe3O4 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 (Fe3O4). The transmission electron microscopy observations indicated that the as-synthesized nanoparticles were single crystals.