Nanostructure and Optical Properties of Fe3O4: Effect of Calcination Temperature and Dwelling Time

Abstract

In this work, we reported the nanostructure and optical properties of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The Fe3O4 have been synthesized from local iron sand Halmahera Utara by using the coprecipitation method at a temperature of 80C and NaOH concentration of 3M. The nanoparticles were calcined at 150C and 250C for 4 hours consecutively, while the calcination dwelling time was 2 hours and 4 hours at a temperature of 250C. The results show that a formation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with a spinel crystal structure. The lattice parameter of nanoparticles decreases with an increase of calcination temperature and dwelling time due to higher thermal energy driving the atom to move closer to each other. Hence, the crystallite size of the nanoparticles increases due to the expansion process to the grain of the nanoparticles. The optical gap energy of the nanoparticles decreases due to the formation of a larger particle. It also confirms that the existence of Fe3+-O and Fe2+-O bonds in the nanoparticles which are characteristic functional group bond of Fe3O4 in the tetrahedral and octahedral sublattice. This result can prove that a higher calcination temperature and longer dwelling time can improve the nanostructure and optical properties of Fe3O4.