Preparation and Magnetic Properties of Nd2O3 Doped Fe2O3-SiO2 Nanocomposites

Nd2O3 doped Fe2O3-SiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by a two-step acid-catalyzed method and sol-gel process using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the starting material, iron nitrate Fe(NO3)(3)center dot 9H(2)O as iron source material. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were recorded to study structure and phase composition of Nd2O3 doped Fe2O3 center dot SiO2 nanocomposites. Magnetic characteristics were investigated through vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and zero-field-cooled (ZFC)/field-cooled(FC). It can be found that the intensity of peaks and the value of the saturation magnetization of the samples decreased with the increasing of doping concentration of Nd2O3. And peaks are the most intense and the crystal structure is the best for Fe2O3-SiO2 nanocomposite with Nd2O3 (molar fraction Nd/Si=0.5%). It also shows that the addition of Nd2O3 can make the block temperature lower, giving a relatively large temperature range and the Nd2O3 doped Fe2O3-SiO2 nanocomposites still display superparamagnetic behaviour.