Soft-templating approach for the synthesis of high surface area and superparamagnetic mesoporous iron oxide materials

Designing pores of nanoscale dimension into a magnetic material can engineer the surface nanostructure, resulting in a mesoporous material with unique physicochemical properties. Here we report a simple soft-templating approach for the synthesis of new mesoporous iron oxide materials having semi-crystalline pore wall by using an anionic surfactant sodiumdodecylsulfate as the structure-directing agent (SDA) or template at low temperature. On removal of the SDA molecules through solvent extraction the mesostructure is preserved and the material shows considerably high BET surface area and type IV isotherms corresponding to the mesopores. This mesoporous Fe2O3 material showed superparamagnetic behavior and hence this template-assisted synthesis of mesoporous Fe2O3 can find its potential utility in designing magnetic nanostructured materials.