Facile Large‐Scale Synthesis of Nanoscale Fayalite, α‐Fe ₂ SiO ₄

Abstract

Abstract Fayalite has been found various applications in many fields. However, it is scarce in Earth's crust. Most of the preparation methods reported earlier are slightly rigorous or complicated and mainly used for preparing large crystal or single crystal fayalite. Because of the potential applications in the field of functional materials and catalysis, nanoscale fayalite would be interesting and attractive. Herein we designed a new method to synthesize nanoscale α‐Fe 2 SiO 4 via a H 2 ‐assisted gas‐solid reaction. We have used three different approaches based on the above method. The highly dispersed precursor, which was prepared by a continuous co‐precipitation method, was heated to a phase‐transition temperature (∼600 °C) under H 2 atmosphere to synthesize nanoscale α‐Fe 2 SiO 4 . The fayalites were characterized by XAD, XAS and FT‐IR. Comparing with the earlier reported methods, our method largely reduces the reaction temperature, and facilitates large scale synthesis of nanoscale fayalite. It is found that the well distribution of Fe−O and Si−O domains in a nanometer scale plays an important role in the preparation.