Preparation and characterization of carbon fibers coated by Fe3O4 nanoparticles

Carbon fibers have been successfully coated with Fe3O4 nanoparticles coating layers via sol–gel method combined with annealing under vacuum. The phase structures and morphologies of the composite have been characterized by XRD and FESEM. The results show that a complete and uniform Fe3O4 nanoparticles coating on carbon fibers can be obtained in the temperature range of 300–550 °C. The coating layers with thickness ca. 800 nm are composed by Fe3O4 nanoparticles of mean sizes ca. 30 nm. The surface properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles detached from carbon fibers/Fe3O4 composite have been analyzed by XPS and FTIR.