Microwave-solvothermal synthesis of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles

Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by the microwave-solvothermal method in a simple reaction system during significantly shorter time than traditional solvothermal or hydrothermal methods. In this synthetic system, ethylene glycol acts as solvent, microwave mediate, and reductant; trisodium citrate works as assistant reductant and electrostatic stabilizer, which makes the Fe3O4 nanoparticles well dispersed in the solution; NH4Ac is the nucleating agent. In the process, a burst of “hot-spots” induced by quick microwave irradiation can create a condition for uniform seeding in the precursor solution, and accelerate the formation of Fe3O4 nanocrystals. F43O4 nanoparticles prepared by the microwave-solvothermal method showed a higher saturation magnetization than the sample synthesized by the conventional solvothermal method, which can be ascribed to the fact that the former has smaller particle sizes than the later.