Regular Fe3O4 octahedrons with excellent soft magnetic properties prepared by dealloying technique

• Regular Fe3O4 octahedrons was successfully fabricated by dealloying technique.
• Dealloying factors were compared and optimized to obtain Fe3O4 octahedrons.
• The presently prepared Fe3O4 octahedrons revealed good magnetic properties.
• The Fe3O4 octahedrons exhibited a promising application prospect.

The dealloying processes of Al–15Fe (at.%) alloy ribbons consisting of two distinct phases of α-Al (Fe) and Al13Fe4 in NaOH solutions were investigated. The effects of NaOH solution concentration, dealloying temperature and time on the results were comparatively discussed. The as-dealloyed samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). It was found that all of the three experimental conditions could affect the morphology of the as-dealloyed samples, and the influence of solution concentration was the crucial factor. The Al could be leached out from both the α-Al (Fe) and Al13Fe4 phases to obtain regular octahedral Fe3O4 under most of the experimental conditions except for that in the 0.5 mol L−1 NaOH solution at ambient temperature. In particular, the Fe3O4 from dealloying Al–15Fe ribbons in 5 mol L−1 NaOH solution for 48 h at ambient temperature shows a uniform octahedral structure (average edge length: 667 ± 158 nm) and special magnetic properties (saturation magnetization: 83.3 emu g−1, residual magnetization: 10.4 emu g−1 and coercive force: 256.9 Oe), implying its potential applications in magnetic fluid, information storage, etc.

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