Preparation of Metallic Iron Nanoparticles with Liquid Phase Chemical Reduction Method

The preparation of nanomaterials is a great challenge in the fields of synthetic chemistry and materials science, because materials with nanoscale and micro-scale structure have unique properities. Nanostructures with controlled size and shape are important from both fundamental application and technological viewpoints. In fact, it is well-known that the size and shape are two primary variables determining physical (such as magnetic, optical, etc.) as well as chemical (reactivity, catalysis, etc.) properties of nanoparticles. Here a simple method for the synthesis of iron nanoparticles under a relative mild condition by developing effective synthetic technique is reported. Using this method, iron nanoparticles with particle sizes about 15-50 nm were prepared by the reduction of ferrous chloride with hydration hydrazine in aqueous solution at room temperature, with citric acid's appearance. The resulting metallic powders were characterized by XRD, EDX and FESEM. The magnetic performance of the obtained Fe nanoparticles were also discussed.