Atomic structural evolution during the reduction of α-Fe2O3 nanowires

Published

June 20, 2016

Author(s)

Wenhui Zhu, Jonathan P. Winterstein, Itai Maimon, Qiyue Yin, Lu Yuan, Aleksey N. Kolmogorov, Renu Sharma, Guangwen Zhou

Abstract

The atomic-scale reduction mechanism of α-Fe2O3 nanowires by H2 was followed using transmission electron microscopy to reveal the evolution of atomic structures and the associated transformation pathways for different iron oxides. The reduction commences with the generation of oxygen vacancies that order onto every 10th 3030 } plane. This vacancy ordering is followed by an allotropic transformation of α-Fe2O3  γ-Fe2O3 along with the formation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on the surface of the γ-Fe2O3 nanowire by a topotactic transformation process. These observations demonstrate that the partial reduction of α-Fe2O3 nanowires results in the formation of a unique hierarchical structure of hybrid oxides consisting of the parent oxide phase, γ-Fe2O3, as the one-dimensional wire and the Fe3O4 having the form of nanoparticles decorated on the parent oxide skeleton.

Citation

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Volume

120

Issue

27

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b02033

Local Download

Keywords

Iron oxide nanowires, redox reaction, Transmission electron microscopy

Citation

Zhu, W. , Winterstein, J. , Maimon, I. , Yin, Q. , Yuan, L. , Kolmogorov, A. , Sharma, R. and Zhou, G. (2016), Atomic structural evolution during the reduction of α-Fe2O3 nanowires, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b02033, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=919634 (Accessed October 10, 2025)