The influence of a Cr-dopant on the properties of α-FeOOH particles precipitated in highly alkaline media

The effects of a Cr-dopant on the precipitation of acicular α-FeOOH particles, the formation of solid solutions, particle size and shape were investigated using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopies and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Acicular and monodisperse α-FeOOH particles were precipitated at a very high pH by heating the suspension obtained by adding a tetramethylammonium hydroxide solution to an aqueous solution of FeCl3. The influence of the Cr-dopant was investigated by addition of various amounts of Cr3+ ions to the initial FeCl3 solution, where r = 100[Cr]/([Cr] + [Fe]) stands for the added amount of Cr. XRD analysis of the obtained powders (with r values from 0 to 23.08) showed only the presence of the diffraction lines characteristic for α-FeOOH. Mössbauer spectroscopy showed a decrease in hyperfine magnetic field of α-FeOOH with an increase in Cr addition which indicates Cr incorporation into the α-FeOOH structure. The OH bending bands in the FT-IR spectra showed only a slight change in position with an increase in r, but the considerable increase in the lattice band wave number indicated a decrease in thickness of the lath-like α-FeOOH particles. This conclusion was confirmed by FE-SEM observations.