Synthesis of Magnetite Nanoparticles Under UV/IR Irradiation: Investigation of Effects on the Properties

Introduction: Magnetite nanoparticles are very important nanomaterials due to their magnetic properties and compatibility with the human organism. In this research, the effects of the irradiation on the properties of the magnetite nanoparticles, synthesized by co-precipitation method were studied. Materials and Methods: The synthesized particles were characterized by using different instrumental and analytical methods. It was found that irradiation of the reaction solution affect the size of the synthesized nanoparticles. Depending on the radiation wave length, the size of the nanoparticles could be altered. Therefore, the irradiation could be employed in order to control the size of the synthesized magnetite nanoparticles. Result: The size of the particles decreased with increasing the irradiation wavelength. Furthermore, it is well known that the saturation magnetization of magnetite nanoparticles is less than that of bulk magnetite. Conclusion: We found that this reduction in the saturation magnetization is mainly due to the surface spin canting and is much less dependent on the purity of the nanoparticles.