Microwave-solvothermal synthesis of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles

Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by the microwave-solvothermal method in a simple reaction system during significantly shorter time than traditional solvothermal or hydrothermal methods. In this synthetic system, ethylene glycol acts as solvent, microwave mediate, and reductant; trisodium citrate works as assistant reductant and electrostatic stabilizer, which makes the Fe3O4 rianoparticles well dispersed in the solution; NH4Ac is the nucleating agent. In the process, a burst of hot-spots induced by quick microwave irradiation can create a condition for uniform seeding in the precursor solution, and accelerate the formation of Fe3O4 nanocrystals. F4(3)O(4) nanoparticles prepared by the microwave-solvothermal method showed a higher saturation magnetization than the sample synthesized by the conventional solvothermal method, which can be ascribed to the fact that the former has smaller particle sizes than the later. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.