Microwave Rapid Synthesis of Nanoporous Fe3O4 Magnetic Microspheres

Nanoporous Fe3O4 magnetic microspheres have been successfully synthesized by the way of microwave heating. The experimental process is expeditious, simple and environmentally friendly. The obtained sample is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis (BET), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and magnetic measurements. The average size of Fe3O4 microspheres is ∼100nm and shows well-dispersed quality in aqueous solution. More importantly, the microspheres possess both nanoporous structure and superparamagnetic behaviour, which endow them powerful application potentials in chemical, biological/biomedical, physical and environmental engineering fields, for example, catalyst or drug carrier, absorption, separation and contrast agents, etc.