Iron oxide nanoparticles modified with oleic acid: Vibrational and phase determination

•Semi - quantitative composition determination of iron oxide nanoparticles modified with oleic acid are related.•Infrared spectroscopy data show which oxide phase interacts higher with the organic environment.•Magnetic measurements at room temperature suggest a superparamagnetic behavior and high saturation magnetization.

A simple path methodology to detect the phase composition of iron oxide nanoparticles modified with oleic acid based on vibrational spectroscopy is present here and applied on three different nanoparticles prepared by co-precipitation method. Firstly, the phase composition, magnetite, maghemite, and hematite, is determined using a reference intensity ratio methodology on X-ray diffraction pattern. Also, the size of each sample was calculated by Scherrer equation. Scanning, transmission electron microscopy, microanalysis and electron diffraction show a core magnetite particles size of around 10 nm for all particles. Based on lattice vibrations, we find a concentration of around 80% of magnetite and a hematite phase lower than 5%. Whereas, the magnetite composition from X-ray diffraction shows 76%. We also investigate the metal-organic interaction and disorder degree of organic molecule conformation by infrared and Raman spectroscopy analysis. Hematite lattice vibrations show more alterations as it interacts with the organic acid. Finally, magnetic measurements at room temperature of the modified particles, suggest a superparamagnetic behavior and high saturation magnetization.

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