Mechanochemical Synthesis of Fe₂O₃ Nanoparticles

In this work, formation of iron oxide nanoparticles by mechanochemical reactions in different milling times was studied. During the mechanical milling, the solid-state displacement reaction of 3Na₂CO₃ + 2FeCl_3.6H₂O = 6NaCl + Fe₂O₃.6H₂O + 3CO₂ was induced to form iron oxide nanoparticles. A simple washing process was done to remove NaCl by-product and subsequently the particles dried at 105°C for 12 h. Nanoparticles size and the mechanochemical effect were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and particle size analysis. Experimental results show that increasing the milling time can effectively reduce the nanoparticle size of Fe₂O₃. The average Fe2O3 nanoparticles size is about 14 nm for 2h and 4 nm for 5h milling process.