Issue 12, 2021

Identifying the presence of magnetite in an ensemble of iron-oxide nanoparticles: a comparative neutron diffraction study between bulk and nanoscale

Abstract

Scientific interest in iron-oxides and in particular magnetite has been renewed due to the broad scope of their fascinating properties, which are finding applications in electronics and biomedicine. Specifically, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are gathering attraction in biomedicine. Their cores are usually constituted by a mixture of maghemite and magnetite phases. In view of this, to fine-tune the properties of an ensemble of IONPs towards their applications, it is essential to enhance mass fabrication processes towards the production of monodisperse IONPs with controlled size, shape, and stoichiometry. We exploit the vacancy sensitivity of the Verwey transition to detect the presence of magnetite. Here we provide direct evidence for the Verwey transition in an ensemble of IONPs through neutron diffraction. This transition is observed as a variation in the Fe magnetic moment at octahedral sites and, in turn, gives rise to a change of the net magnetic moment. Finally, we show this variation as the microscopic ingredient driving the characteristic kink that hallmarks the Verwey transition in thermal variation of magnetization.

Graphical abstract: Identifying the presence of magnetite in an ensemble of iron-oxide nanoparticles: a comparative neutron diffraction study between bulk and nanoscale

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 okt 2020
Accepted
23 mar 2021
First published
01 apr 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2021,3, 3491-3496

Identifying the presence of magnetite in an ensemble of iron-oxide nanoparticles: a comparative neutron diffraction study between bulk and nanoscale

D. González-Alonso, J. I. Espeso, H. Gavilán, L. J. Zeng, M. T. Fernández-Díaz, G. Subías, I. de Pedro, J. R. Fernández, P. Bender, L. F. Barquín and C. Johansson, Nanoscale Adv., 2021, 3, 3491 DOI: 10.1039/D0NA00830C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements