Synthesis and characterization of Ag-loaded hematite nanocomposites

Abstract

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles have been synthesized by thermal decomposition of iron(III)acetylacetonate precursor. The structure and morphology of the resulting powder were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier transformation IR (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Hematite-loading with silver was conducted using the reduction of silver nitrate by ascorbic acid realized by three different synthetic procedures – simple reduction process, ultrasonically supported reduction, and reduction after pre-treatment of hematite in Lugol's iodine. All synthesized hematite/silver samples were characterized withSEM, supported by EDS maps. Silver content was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The development of Ag-doped hematite nanocomposites, hetero-structures containing Ag and magnetic iron oxide,is indispensable in orderto take advantage of Ag containing nanocomposites in the field of biomedicine.