Phase and Magnetic Properties of Fe3O4/SiO2 Natural Materials-Based Using Polyethylene Glycol Media

Abstract

The research objectives were phase characterization and magnetic properties of Fe3O4/SiO2 nanocomposite (NCs) prepared by a wet-mixing process so that Fe3O4 magnetite nanoparticles coated amorphous silica SiO2; Polyethylene glycol is used as a binding medium. The Fe3O4 magnetic material was prepared from the iron sand with a co-precipitation method and silica (SiO2) nanoparticles from quartz sand with a continuous method (hydrothermal-coprecipitation). The samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and vibrating sample magnetometers (VSM). The data analysis of the XRD and FTIR data presented that theFe3O4 and SiO2 crystals were obtained which respectively act as the Fe3O4/SiO2 NCs; signified by the existence of silanol (Si-O; O-Si-O) and Fe+2 (Fe-O) functional groups. The VSM profile exhibited the superparamagnetic/soft-magnetic properties at room temperature. The presence of the silica shell is able to decrease the magnetization from 29 emu/g to 5 emu/g.