Sol-gel synthesis and characterization of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

The α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized via sol-gel technique. The lattice parameters, the lattice strain and crystallite size were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis has been carried out to confirm the presence of functional groups. Using UV-visible spectrum, the optical band gap energy is estimated as 2.55 eV. The morphology and chemical composition of the α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were examined by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray diffraction analysis (EDX) respectively. The hysteresis loop was traced out using vibration sample magnetometer and the values of coercivity and saturation magnetization are found out to be 3891 G and 0.4193 emu/g respectively.