Ripening during magnetite nanoparticle synthesis: Resulting interfacial defects and magnetic properties

Published

October 3, 2005

Author(s)

Alexander J. Barker, Brant Cage, Stephen E. Russek, Conrad Stoldt

Abstract

The structure and magnetic properties of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles synthesized by a solvothermal processing route are investigated. The nanoparticles are grown from the single organometallic precursor Fe(III) acetylacetonate in trioctylamine (TOA) solvent at 260°C, with and without the addition of heptanoic acid (HA) as a stabilizing agent. From the temporal particle size distributions, x-ray-diffraction patterns, high-resolution transmission electron microscope tilt series experiments, and superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, we demonstrate that HA, a strong Lewis acid stabilizing agent, slows growth processes during ripening thus reducing the formation of interfacial defects, which we observe in the TOA-only synthesis. Nanoparticles grown with HA remain single-crystalline for long growth times (up to 24 h), show a focused particle size distribution for intermediate growth times (3 h), and possess a higher magnetic anisotropy (15.8 x 10⁴ J/m³) than particles grown without the additional stabilizing agent. The reduced magnetic anisotropy value for the magnetite nanoparticles grown in TOA-only (1.29 x 10⁴ J/m³) is attributed to polycrystallinity induced by the uncontrolled ripening process. This work may have significance for contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging.

Citation

Journal of Applied Physics

Volume

98

Issue

063528

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

iron oxide, magnetic susceptibility, nanoparticle

Citation

Barker, A. , Cage, B. , Russek, S. and Stoldt, C. (2005), Ripening during magnetite nanoparticle synthesis: Resulting interfacial defects and magnetic properties, Journal of Applied Physics, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=31964 (Accessed October 10, 2025)