Preparation and characterization of single-phase α-Fe2O3 nano-powders by Pechini sol–gel method

In this work, single-phase α-Fe2O3 nano-particles were first synthesized via Pechini sol–gel method using citric acid and polyethylene glycol-6000 as chelating agents. The structural coordination of as-prepared polymeric intermediates was investigated by FTIR analysis. Thermal behavior of the polymeric intermediates was studied by TG-DTG-DSC thermograms. The structure of the powders calcined at different temperatures was characterized by XRD and FESEM. The single-phase α-Fe2O3 nano-powders with uniform size were prepared when the polymeric intermediate calcined at 600 °C, and the lowest particle size was found to be 30 nm.

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► Single-phase α-Fe2O3 nano-particles could be synthesized via Pechini sol–gel method.
► In the polymeric intermediates, citric acid combined with metal ions mainly for the two-tooth complexing and bridge complexing.
► The phase transfer at different temperature shows that single-phase α-Fe2O3 could be obtained calcined at 600 °C and above.
► And the lowest particle size was found to be 30 nm.