Preparation and magnetic property of Fe2O3 parallelepiped nanocrystals

Well-dispersed α-Fe2O3 parallelepiped nanocrystals have been successfully prepared via a hydrothermal synthetic route. The shapes and structures of the products were characterized by using powder X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the α-Fe2O3 samples have a parallelepiped shape with an average parallel side of 80–90 nm and thickness of 60–70 nm. The parallelepiped nanocrystals exhibited a ferromagnetic behavior with the coercive force, saturation magnetization, and remanent magnetization of 920 Oe, 0.44 emu/g, and 0.17 emu/g, respectively. The crystal growth process was discussed on the basis of time-dependent experimental results.

► Design and synthesis of α-Fe2O3 parallelepiped nanocrystals.
► A hydroxide precursor Fe8O8(OH)8Cl1.35 have been captured.
► α-Fe2O3 parallelepiped nanocrystals have coercivity of 920 Oe.
► α-Fe2O3 parallelepiped nanocrystals have saturation magnetization of 0.44 emu/g.