Iron oxide(III) nanoparticles fabricated by electron beam irradiation method

Abstract

Iron oxide(III) is an extensively investigated material because of its magnetic, optical and catalytic properties. It has been used as electrodes in non-aqueous and alkaline batteries [1], as cathodes in brine electrolysis [2], shows photocatalytic properties for N2 fixation [3], etc. It is possible to change its semiconducting character from nto p-type by applying an appropriate dopant. Also iron oxide is used to fabricate pigments, sorbents and gas sensors [4]. Iron oxide(III) has been prepared by various methods such as chemical vapour deposition [5], sol-gel processes [6], pulsed laser evaporation [7], reactive sputtering [8], hydrothermal technique [9] and spray pyrolysis [10, 11]. In this paper, electron beam irradiation, a novel method to fabricate nanocrystalline iron oxide(III) has been described. The microstructure, morphology and thermodynamic properties of iron oxide were studied.